Veteran advisers understand the importance of summer workshops to their yearbook program. New advisers or reluctant staff members may not fully comprehend the benefits of getting a jump-start on the next yearbook.
Spring 2006
Help can come from unlikely sources. After Hurricane Katrina struck
the Gulf Coast Aug. 29, small, rural Hammon High School in Hammon, Okla., was able to donate two computers and a 35mm camera to Grace King High School in Metairie, La., which usually has about 1,500 students.
Recruiting a top-notch yearbook staff is important to the success of a yearbook program – just ask advisers who have no control over the process.
Life is a balancing act, and some people do it better than others. Some of the
best examples of balancing work and professional life come from yearbook
advisers, who must be a contributing family member and teach while overseeing
yearbook production.
On occasion this column profiles professionals in the world of photojournalism and has them share their stories and expertise. For this issue I talked to Calvin Hom, deputy director of photography for the Los Angeles Times.
Master pages are like a set of pages that live behind your current spread. Anything that is placed on a master page appears on every page to which that master is applied. For example, the folio information that appears on every page of a Walsworth template is actually placed on your master pages. But master pages have more uses than that.
On their way to your school, your yearbooks stop in the Shipping Department, where delivery is arranged by Shipping Clerk Denny Forsee. Forsee has spent 12 years in that department at Walsworth, working to ensure on-time delivery of your hard work.
There are many ways to tell a story, but to entice readers to linger over the yearbook copy, the best writers follow basic story-telling rules. Most of those rules revolve around the stories of the people in the school. The events may not change year to year, but the people do, and how they participate in and react to those events makes each year unique. Consider these basic points ofcopy writing to tell the story of those people.
In the spring, it is time to get organized for the next yearbook. One way to start the process may be to take time and do a little investigating about organizational tactics. Some of the chapters in these books may be helpful by leading you down the path for improving organization wherever you need it in your program.
Advising a yearbook means taking the big celebrations, like yearbook workshop, first deadline and delivery day, and fully appreciating them, because they are few and far between.
