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.
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Staff Management
Using job descriptions to organize staff lets each student know what is expected, and lets you see if every job that needs to be done is covered. Yearbook production flows much more smoothly and deadlines are easier to meet when the staff knows what part they play in the process.
The best approach to managing your time is the approach that works best for you. There are many general suggestions that can be made to guide you in the right direction, but you may have to adapt these “formulas” to fit your specific life-style. Remember to keep your life under control!
To most of us who produce the yearbook, club and organization pictures are significant because they show what your campus offers and what activities students participate in throughout the school year. To handle such a monumental task, we hold a club picture day on campus to get these important shots for the yearbook. Here is a plan to help you run your picture day smoothly.
Constructive criticism of last year’s yearbook can help assist in producing your next yearbook. Use the criteria on the checklist below, which is often used by state or national yearbook critique services, to critique your book in five categories.
Distribution is an exciting time as students, faculty, parents and others look at the final product that the yearbook staff has worked so hard on all year. Yet, yearbook staffs dread a reader pointing out something in the book they do not like, or worse – errors. Like every other phase of yearbook production, plans need to be in place to handle customer concerns and complaints.
Book critiques can help your staff learn from their work and improve their yearbook. While your staff can analyze their own book (see sidebar), another point of view is always helpful. There are a few ways to get a professional critique.
In the 1989 movie, Field of Dreams, farmer Ray Kinsella, played by Kevin Costner, follows the directions of a mysterious voice to construct a baseball diamond in his cornfield. He hears a voice whisper, “If you build it, he will come.” Ray builds the baseball diamond, and the greatest heroes of his past come to play.
Similar to Ray, many yearbook advisers and their staffs create a yearbook in the hopes that students and parents will come to buy and appreciate the end result.
Despite our differences, our common purpose is what motivates us: to produce a good book for our audience at a reasonable cost in manpower and dollars. We want to be proud of our efforts. And we have every right to have fun, too.
Yearbook staff members typically form cliques based on previous friendships and their grade levels. Freshmen are often intimidated by the upperclassmen and are reluctant to ask them for help during deadline crunches. New members of any grade are unsure of their roles and how they fit in.
These situations can create an uncomfortable working environment within the classroom. Experienced staff members know how to make newcomers feel welcome in this high-stress environment where they have much to learn.
