Help with yearbook sales top advisers’ concerns at Academy

How to sell more yearbooks was a main concern of yearbook advisers who met with Steve Blair, Walsworth’s executive vice president of yearbook sales, during roundtable discussions held at the company’s Adviser Academy.

Blair held four roundtables with advisers during the Academy to ask about their concerns and needs for their yearbook programs.

Most of the six advisers attending the roundtable at noon on Friday said they struggled with yearbook sales, and Stacey Roberts of Camp Verde High School in Camp Verde, Ariz., said her staff surveyed students about why they didn’t buy the yearbook. Roberts said lack of money was not the problem, it was getting students interested.

The group also expressed the need for better equipment, wanting information on writing grants and wanting a list of the best equipment, such as cameras and copiers, for yearbook programs when it was time to replace items or if extra money came to their programs. The advisers were directed to an older story on Walsworth’s website about grant writing.

Kim Praser, adviser at Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, Ill., praised The Yearbook Suite, Walsworth’s curriculum guide, and the group discussed its contents for newer advisers and how to get a set. Praser said she wrote her own quizzes, and offered to email them to the group.