How old do you have to be to do community service?

How does community service work, and how is it recorded?

• (I'm 15, about to turn 16.) This is actually a few questions: I help work the concession stand for my school's SGA every now and then. (I usually just have to work until halftime, but I always insist on working full-time.) We get school service hours for it, and the teacher records it on sheets (including what work we did, and how long we worked). The sheets usually call it community service, but I'm not sure if it's the same thing. Also, tonight I have a community service job, I guess you would say. My question is, since the teacher keeps records of our concession stand duty, who would keep records of community service outside of the school (court house, the people hosting the benefit, etc)? I signed up for it at school, so I assume at least one teacher would be there. Would they keep a record of it, or should the students working keep their own records? When you're an adult, how does it work? Could you just keep a copy of whatever papers the supervisor has, in regards to what work you did? (Also, part of the reason I'm actually doing anything: I can't get a paid-job, so I can't get work experience from something like McDonald's. Can I list my school's SGA and a few community service jobs as work experience? I did list on one application that I'd never had a job, which is true in the sense I've never had a paid-job.)

• Answer:

  The supervisor of that nonprofit records your hours, signs the sheet and hands it to you. As an adult I have NO interest of a record of my hours. You can't list most community service on a job application since it is irrelevant to job experience unless you are a long time volunteer that assists in job related activities Such as handling the finances of a benefit, securing the permits, handling the advertising and so on. These are skills that are marketable when job hunting.