Nothing is quite as frantic as a badly organized yearbook room at deadline. Usually, most advisers have more than enough staff and more than enough time to make deadlines manageable. However, advisers’ main problem seems to be not having time to sit down and develop a plan for optimum staff efficiency. Therefore, with apologies to David Letterman, I would like to share my top 10 ways to improve staff development.
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Staff Management
Unlike the horse that will move forward only when he sees a carrot on a stick in front of him, there are many ways to motivate people to accomplish tasks. Different people are motivated by different enticements. For yearbook, some staff members like prizes; most like food. With some, peer pressure and being invested in the project are enough. Consider some of these inducements, both lighthearted and serious, to get your staff to perform when the pressure of a deadline is not enough.
When people work together as a team, it shows in the finished product. Without a yearbook “team,” it would be impossible to produce a book. However, it is up to you how tight your team is. The tighter the team, the better the book. Below are some suggestions for bringing your staff together, and creating a family atmosphere inside (and outside) the yearbook room.
The staff could not contain their excitement. They showed me their cover design and said it would look “really cool” in neon orange with a bright green alligator holding our school mascot protruding from the wide open jaws. Such is the life of a South Florida yearbook adviser. When I awoke from this nightmare, I thought again about who actually controls the book. While some advisers control every step of the process, from cover to endsheets and everything in between, others hold to the philosophy that this is a student production and decisions should be made by the editor and editorial staff members.
Tasks that will make deadlines easier on you and your adviser.
“When a tool is used efficiently, you conserve time and energy. When meetings are run efficiently, you conserve all the resources available to management: time, energy, money, facilities, materials and human effort.”
The 2008 NAA Foundation research mirrors the 1987 JEA findings and provides clear evidence that student journalists earn better high school grades, perform at higher levels on college entrance exams and receive higher grades in college writing and grammar courses than students who lack that experience.
Organizing for the yearbook deadline can sometimes be an overwhelming task, but taking the following tips under advice may make your task much easier to handle.
They say that good work is its own reward, and when a yearbook staff begins pulling the first yearbooks from the box, you know this is true. However, by the time they begin unpacking books, they have been waiting for their reward for nearly a year. Because yearbook is such a long-term project, a series of small rewards along the way can keep a staff on track and motivated.
Yearbook is hard work, and everyone needs a break from hard work now and then. Both yearbook production and fun activities should foster a unified, family-like atmosphere that will relieve stress, provide motivation and team-building opportunities and make for great memories. The list of tips below is by no means complete, but try some of these ideas for making yearbook fun.
