Youth Participation Coordinator Guidelines

Purpose of the Position
YALSA places the principles of youth development as well as youth participation as one of its priority areas. The purpose of the Youth Participation Coordinator is to oversee the effort to ensure that there is adequate involvement of teens in YALSA programs at conferences and at other events, where appropriate. The goal is to recruit local teens to participate at each Midwinter and Annual meeting. As ALA travels to different locations for each conference, then YALSA will be able to hear from teens across the nation.

Scope of the Position

• The Youth Participation Coordinator works closely with committee and program chairs and local librarians to locate local young adults to speak at conference programs and makes arrangements for them to attend and participate in the programs.
• He or she may also recruit young adults for participation in other YALSA activities, including publications, special projects and web-based initiatives.

Position Description

The Youth Participation Coordinator works with the chairs of committees who wish to have local teen participation. As part of this effort the YP Coordinator:
• Educates committee chairs as to the correct procedures for obtaining teens for their programs
• Locates and invites local teens through their advisors, sponsoring agencies or schools
• Works with advisors on preparing the teens to speak in front of committees
• Provides committee chairs with the names of the teens and their groups prior to conference
• Ensures that the teens are adequately thanked for their participation. This includes working with the YALSA office to provide exhibit passes to teens and chaperones
• Attends relevant YALSA meetings, such as All Committee, at the Midwinter and Annual Conferences
• Completes pre and post conference reports for Midwinter and Annual
• Corresponds regularly with teen advisors and YALSA committee chairs.

Procedures Relating to Youth Participation

• When making arrangements for teen conference participants, the YP Coordinator will seek teens that are local to the city where the conference is being held. Only those teens that are officially invited by the YP Coordinator are eligible to participate in YALSA conference programs.

o For general purposes, local is defined as within easy commute of the city (i.e. the commute is short enough so that a night’s stay in the city isn’t required).
o Committee members seek input from their teens throughout the year. If committee members’ teens are not local, they are not eligible to be official speakers at Midwinter or Annual, unless the YP Coordinator is not able to find an adequate number of local teens.

• The Youth Participation Coordinator will first contact local librarians through the Local Arrangements Committee to find interested teen groups.

o If an adequate number of local teens cannot be located through this means, or through committee members, then it is appropriate for the YP Coordinator to post a message requesting local teens on YALSA’s discussion lists. The YP Coordinator may also work with the YALSA Office to find local teens.

• An optimum number of teens for the BBYA teen feedback session are 30-50 teens.
• Efforts will be made to obtain a wide diversity of teen representation.

Before the Conference – Youth Participation Coordinator Guidelines

• Educates committee chairs as to the correct procedures for obtaining teens for their programs

o Recommended tools for communicating with committee chairs, is via the electronic discussion list, yalsacom, and at Leadership Development meetings at Midwinter and Annual.

• Locates and invites local teens through their advisors, sponsoring agencies or schools
• Works closely with advisors on preparing the teens to speak in front of committees
• Provides committee chairs with the names of the teens and their groups prior to conference
• Provides relevant information in advance of the event to appropriate program and committee chairs and the YALSA office for each of the teens attending, such as school or library represented, advisor name, number of teens, name of teens and age range represented
• As per YALSA’s National Youth Participation Guidelines, the Youth Participation Coordinator will make available to any ALA committee a list of local contacts six months prior to the event.
• Work with the Local Arrangements Committee to draw up a list of recommended activities/places to visit near the conference center that will have specific appeal to teens

At the Conference - Teen Participant Guidelines

• Arrange with the chaperones and YALSA staff a time and place to distribute exhibit passes.
• One-day Exhibit passes will be provided for teens who are participating with committees. Passes may also be provided to chaperones who are not otherwise attending the conference. It is strongly recommended that one chaperone be available for every 10 teens. As per ALA practice the passes are only for the day the teens are speaking at a program.

o According to ALA practice, speakers are only eligible for this one-day pass if they are not a librarian and not a current member of ALA. The pass is not made available prior to the day of the speaker's presentation.
o Because teens must be chaperoned, the chaperones, even though they are not official speakers, are also eligible for a free one-day pass (if the chaperone is not a librarian or member of ALA).

At the Conference – Youth Participation Coordinator Guidelines

In preparation for the teens’ participation, the Youth Participation Coordinator will:
• Work with the YALSA office to ensure that the exhibit passes are prepared
• Work closely with each Committee Chair using teen participants
• Coordinate distribution of the conference badges to teens and chaperones
• Work with the teen advisors to orient the teens on the day of their participation
• Provide a schedule for the day’s events to the chaperones
• Attend the teen session of the Best Books for Young Adults Committee
• Provide assistance to the chair and the teen groups.

After the Conference

• Contact committee chairs and teen chaperones to obtain feedback about the teen experience.
• Fill out the online Post Conference Committee Planning Form

-Adopted by the YALSA Board of Directors June 2006, and will be reviewed in a year’s time.