In a perfect world, every student would buy a yearbook every year. They would just line up to pay for it.
There are a few schools like that. Seattle Preparatory School, a private Jesuit school in Seattle, Wash., is one of them.
A well written and designed book that has good coverage of the entire school population will sell well. Probably no single factor does more to sell a book than the intrinsic value of the book, which can be improved with four features.
Yearbook staffs can capture reader interest with stories that reflect students’ lives today. Feature stories should reflect student interests, concerns and lifestyles.
Developing a theme idea throughout the yearbook not only helps to unify the book, but also adds a special dimension of involvement for readers. In the late 90s, there are many theme directions you can pursue.
A variety of distribution methods exist – from simple to flashy – no matter whether yearbooks are handed out in the spring, summer or fall. Advisers and administrators opposed to summer/fall delivery cite obstacles to distributing yearbooks, especially to seniors, for staying with spring delivery.
If a theme is going to have a wide range of appeal, it should evolve from brainstorming by the entire yearbook staff. Follow the enclosed guidelines.
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.
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.
“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.”