The Yearbook Blog

Yes, we know, YERDS and Advisers are very under appreciated, but there are other individuals on campus who deserve some appreciation, too — whether it’s a note, a gift card, or a nice acknowledgement at a staff meeting.

• The custodian (who cleans up the classroom after the pizza parties on your late work nights)
• The secretary (who answers a million and two questions about yearbook)
• The counseling department (who runs off all the class lists and always knows what class someone is in)
• The IT person (who answers all your panicked phone calls when the computers are whacky)
• The bank clerk (who collects all the money from book sales, ad sales, parent ad sales, and fundraisers AND pays your bills on time!)

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “U” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Producing a yearbook is a lot of fun, but it also carries a great responsibility. A yearbook lasts forever and cannot be reproduced once the year is over. Because of this, every picture, every caption, every quote in every story, and even every graphic has to be true and accurate. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind as you record the year’s memories for your school community:

• Check and double check names. No one wants their name misspelled forever.

• Captions and Senior Superlatives are a part of the coverage. They are not a place for inside jokes.

• It’s our place to record history, not make it up. Make sure your scores, quotes and sources are verified.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “R” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Although organization can be boring, it can save a lot of drama come deadline day. Here are some resources you can use/create to make Yearbook a little more organized.

• Create staff Mailboxes. This is a great way for staff members to communicate with each other and keep materials in a central location.
• Use your ladder and post it on the wall. It really can make things easier in the yearbook world. This helps prevent pages or topics falling through the cracks.
• Create a proof binder that has a print out of all the pages you submit. It is a great way to keep track of what you have done and still need to do.
• Create a yearbook finance binder that is separated in 3 parts - business ads,  parent ads, and book sales. This way all of your yearbook money information is in 1 spot.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “O” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

We know what it’s like: deadlines, missing pictures, lots of stress. Sometimes it’s so overwhelming that production seems to come to a standstill. So how do you keep your students going through even the toughest circumstances? First, appoint a staff social director, and then try these methods of motivation:

• Celebrate staff birthdays and 1/2 birthdays (for those born during the summer months.)
• Institute a “Staffer of the Month” award with a small token of recognition: a crown or sceptor for the day, a Staffer of the Month certificate, and a perpetual plaque or poster on the wall. Throw in a cake, cupcakes, doughnuts or cookies, and you’ve got a great 10 minute celebration!
• Plan a theme (think The 80’s, Pirates, Disney, Valentine’s Day) for each deadline week or deadline work night.
• Decorate the room, have students bring theme-related food, and play a mixed CD of theme-related music. You’ll be surprised at how much work gets accomplished when fun is in the air!

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “M” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Ladder (rhymes with ladder) is your organizational road map. Make sure yours is complete, accurate, and where everyone can see it.

• Don’t just use the same ladder year to year. Recreate it every fall with a new staff and fresh ideas
• Ask yourself if your particular theme needs a different approach to organization (e.g. chronological approach? Three sections instead of five?)
• Include all pertinent information on the ladder: topic, due date, student(s) assigned, etc.
• Cool tip: laminate a fresh wall ladder and use overhead projector pens to write on it. It is much easier to make changes/corrections that way

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “L” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Let’s face it: the yearbook classroom isn’t just another set of four walls with cutsie kitten posters inside. Find ways to make it your “Home Sweet Home”:

• Make sure you have a place for communication, using stacking plastic holders, envelopes, or actual mailboxes for each staff member (or team)
• Add a room mascot and name it. Of course we’ve seen the standard stuffed animal, but also a growing ball of stickers, a store-bought piñata, and fish on a stick (made from construction paper, of course)
• Make room for a “rant wall” where staff members can write funny sayings, quote other staffers during the year, and doodle.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “H” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Deadline, shmedline: it’s no big deal when you have the proper planning.

• Work backwards, setting up mini deadlines necessary to achieve the final one
• Plan your ladder well, consulting with your school calendar to check for school events and sports seasons
• Always add up to 10% more pages to each deadline to allow for unexpected problems (if 36 pages are due, assign an additional 4 just in case)
• Have deadline parties or celebrate when you’ve successfully met a deadline

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “D” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

• Make a birthday board on the wall for all of the staff members. Be sure to celebrate.
• Give out awards after each deadline like most creative copy, most helpful person, best photo on a spread, etc.
• Make a slips of paper that say “Thanks for. . .” and let staff members write notes to each other
• Two words: candy jar
  

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook” project. If you’d like to download the “A” card, go to the “Adviser Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

It’s a new year, new theme, new kids, new ideas… It’s so easy to get caught up in all the fun stuff and lose focus on what really needs to be done. Use this list of the 12 most important things that need to be done by October 1st to help your staff stay focused. (But that doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun!)

1. Open Your Kit
   • Your yearbook kit contains all the materials necessary to produce your yearbook.
   • Start with the “Start Here” Envelope.
   • Check the Kit Guide to make sure all items have been included
   • Use the order form on the back to order any additional supplies you will need.
2. Contact Photographer
   • Schedule a meeting with you school photographer during the first few weeks of school.
   • Discuss your full color needs and be sure he understands the importance of deadlines
   • Give him your deadlines. Predate them one week as a safety margin.
   • Discuss what you expect from him and what he can expect from you. Find out what services he is willing to perform and schedule his services for important school activities, such as homecoming.
   • Have senior portraits or DVD delivered to your school at least 10 days prior to your senior deadline
   • Set dates for underclass and faculty portraits and determine when  you will receive your Quick Panel Plus CD
3. Determine Deadlines
   • Check your deadline packet from your reps. Make a note of your deadline dates and number of pages due.
   • Check your deadline packet to determine when your color pages are due, if your book is not all color.
   • Check with photographer to determine when DVD of senior portraits
4. Develop a Theme
   • If you have not yet chosen a theme, select a small group of staff members, preferably returning ones, to work on the theme.
   • Have them discuss what is new and different this year, and have them make a list of these changes in order to find a theme that fits your school and is unique to this year.
   • Conduct brainstorminwg sessions with the entire class and present the group’s ideas.
   • Plan to have the theme appear in some way on the cover, the endsheets, the opening section, the division pages, and in the closing.
5. Make a Ladder
   • Before any pages can be assigned, a page ladder for the entire book must be completed.
   • Check your publication agreement to see how many pages there will be in your book. Obtain enrollment figures for your school from the administration.
   • Decide on the number of pages you will need for seniors, underclass and faculty.
   • Make a list of every club, sport, organization, and event you wish to include.
   • Compute the number of pages needed for each section. Be sure to leave enough space for your opening, closing, divider pages, index and advertisements
   • Use a pencil for your first draft of the ladder; or laminate it and use a dry-erase pen, or use the HJ Planner program.
6. Design the Cover
   • If you attended the Spring Cover Workshop, be sure to finalize your cover design.
   • Consult your yearbook representative to see what types of covers are available and within your budget.
   • Decide on the type of cover that best fits your theme and ask your reps to show you examples.
   • Assign a few staff members to develop a sample design.
   • Once the style and design are decided, determine exactly what type of material you wish to use, the color of the material, the applied color or colors, and meet with your reps to put it all together.
   • Decide whether you will order individual name stamps or name plates for the books, and choose the color for these name stamps/plates.
7. Select Endsheets
   • Several choices of endsheet materials and styles are available to you including company designed full color, colortext, and solid color. Check with your rep to see what options best fit your budget.
   • Select an endsheet that will complement your cover and will carry your theme forward. Be sure that the endsheet colors coordinate with the colors of the cover.
   • Discuss other endsheet options with your reps such as printing on the endsheet, four-color endsheets, die cuts, short-trim endsheets, foil stamping, embossing, and tinted embossing.
8. Sell Ads
   • Make a card file that contains the name, address and phone number of every business that has advertised in your book over the last five years as well as merchants who have advertised in other yearbooks in the area.
   • Add cards for businesses that are owned by parents of students in your school.
   • Expand your file further by adding businesses in your area from the Chamber of Commerce directory for your city and from the yellow pages. Pass out an equal number of cards to every staff member, letting them select those that they know.
   • Students must contact each business. Require that a business card or design is submitted for each ad sold.
   • Give commissions or a bonus to students who sell ads.
9. Plan Full Color
   only if you’re not doing an all-color book
   • Take four Roughing-Its, staple and fold them down the middle. Number them from 1 through 16.
   • Take this 16-page signature and use it to “rough in” your title page, opening spreads and student life spreads and/or any other signatures that will include color pages.
   • Plan the color for one flat or the other or both. Try alternating 4-color with spot color on different flats.
   • Plan to cover activities on your color pages that will occur at least one week before your color deadline.
   • Refer to your “Basics” booklet (in Your Kit) for more explanation on signatures and flats.
10. Make a Style Guide
    • Have each member of the staff make a notebook of graphic and typography samples collected from magazines and brochures. (Ask your reps for a list of good publications.)
    • Review the samples and choose ideas that the staff would like to include in the yearbook.
    • Make a style guide for each section that will include the layout style for that section, the type of headline to be used, and the style for copy and captions.
    • Using Roughing-Its, have staff members use photos and copy from magazines to mock-up double page spreads for each section of the yearbook.
11. Organize Staff
    • Select and Editor-in-Chief who is experienced, knowledgeable, and most of all, a coordinator of people. He/she must be able to encourage others to perform.
    • Choose a good writer with strong personality as copy editor and a good organizer as photo editor. Finally, you should have a financial editor or business manager who is very responsible and who can also motivate people to work.
    • Divide up the remainder of the staff into sections of the book: Student Life, Academics, Clubs and Organizations, Sports, Seniors, Underclass, and Faculty. Be sure that each section has a good writer and a computer expert.
    • If you wish, you may select editors for each section.
12. Sell Books
    • Decide whether to have a one-day sale or a one-week sale. You will sell more books in a short period of time than you will sell all year.
    • Prior to the sale, put up posters, make announcements over the PA, send letters home and in general, try to get the students excited about the yearbook.
    • Remember to include dates and prices in your advertisements.
    • Juat before the sale, have a yearbook rally and have guest speakers talk about the importance of their yearbooks. Be ready to take orders that day.
    • During the sale, assign several students to man the tables at convenient locations.
    • Keep tabs on money and receipts.

Between setting up your classroom, staff meetings, planning lessons for all the other classes you teach, and just general denial that summer is over, it may be hard to get back into yearbook mode again. If that sounds like you, or if you’re new to this whole yearbook thing, here are 15 ideas for the first week of school that will get the ball rolling:

1. Expectations - Review your class requirements, grading policies, any planned staff work nights/weekends and the importance of making deadlines.
2. Information - Complete a staff directory that includes phone numbers, other contact numbers (i.e. email, cell phones, work numbers), class schedules, birthdays, parent’s names, etc…
3. Theme - If it isn’t already decided or in the works, discuss theme and cover ideas
4. Critique - Go through last year’s book and have students list and discuss things they liked best and the things they would change
5. Deadlines - Finalize and post the ladder. Color code it by deadline and list specific spread assignments, which pages will be sent with each deadline, etc. Indicate which pages are going to be printed in color and/or spot color.
6. Sell - Discuss and plan your book sales campaign. Have students brainstorm ideas to increase book sales.
7. Ads - Discuss and plan your community, parent, and friendship ad campaigns. Decide whether every student must sell a certain number of ads, if they get bonuses/commissions, how to organize, etc…
8. Team Building - Start each day with 10 or 15 minutes of icebreakers/team building activities. This will help students get acquainted and get over any fears, shyness, etc. and begin to become a cohesive team.
9. Ideas - Have each staff member bring in 5 ideas from magazines that could be used in the yearbook. Or, have each student bring several magazines and have a “look for ideas” class.
10. Practice - Have students refresh and reinforce their design skills by drawing layouts and pasting up photos and type from magazines.
11. Photograph - Buy disposable cameras, have students shoot photos around campus and “discover” who your best photographers are.
12. Improve - Have students rewrite 5 captions and headlines from last year’s book. They should try to make them more informative and adhere to the caption writing formula.
13. Brainstorm - Have students come up with and discuss ideas for feature stories, profiles, polls, and side-bars
14. Delegate - Ask what special contributions/talents each staffer plans to give to the yearbook. From this conversation, decide each staffer’s strengths and what each student’s responsibilities will be.
15. Bond - Try to plan one outside of class activity. You could go for pizza, go bowling, go roller-skating — anything that will allow staffers to get to know each other and just have fun.

So, it’s May, your books done, and all you’ve got left is distribution. What are you going to do with all this time? Well, there are 3 ways you can take advantage of the yearbook “down time”:

1. Bring in some movies for the kids, call this your extra prep, and catch up on all the stuff you didn’t do all year because you were busy with yearbook
2. Have the kids put all the skills they’ve learned this year into other areas: creating a magazine, website, etc…
3. Start next year’s book now, and be ahead of the game in the Fall!

If Option #3 sounds appealing to you, here are 11 specific things you can do to make sure your staff is ready to roll on the first day of school:

1. Recruit your staff now - Ask your Herff Jones rep for a “Staff Recruiting Packet” if you haven’t done so already. It’s filled with posters, application packets, and everything else you need to recruit a quality staff. If your school won’t let you recruit, ask if you can simply recruit your editors.
2. Decide your theme and cover - The underclassmen on your staff have been waiting all year to have a real say in the book. It’s time to let them strut their stuff. Start brainstorming theme and cover ideas. Write down ones that have potential. Have the staff start collecting magazine lay-outs, brochures, etc… with design inspirations. This is also a good way for you to start choosing your editors for next year.
3. Write down what went well and what didn’t - Do this on your own, with your editors, or with the whole class. Don’t count on remembering everything. Make sure you write it down. (Although you’re calm and relaxed now, remember how rushed you are in the beginning of the year.)
4. Re-do any forms that didn’t work well this year - Sales letters, camera sign up sheets, etc… If there are any forms you use that need improving, now’s the time to do it. Remember to save the new version with a date or version number, in case you run across the old file again.
5. Register for yearbook camp - Most camps have registration deadlines or early bird discounts. Make sure you have all the information you need to register your staff for camp.
6. Train your staff - Now is a great time to work on photography, design, and copywriting skills for your staff that will be returning next year. Bring in some professionals in the community, if you can. Or use this time to beef up your technology skills. Learn some InDesign or Photoshop tricks that you might want to use in next year’s book.
7. Review this year’s budget and make plans for next year - Make sure you know what your final invoice is going to be, or at least a good estimate. Make sure you’ll have enough to cover it. If not, what adjustments do you need to make for next year. If you’ve got money left over, think about how you might want to spend it!
8. Plan your book marketing and sales for next year - Start planning next year’s sales now! Plan a Yearbook Sales Kick-Off event toward the beginning of the year. Come up with a sales slogan. Create video advertisements for morning annoucements. Get all the details taken care of now so that information can be ready to send home as soon as school begins! (TIP: If you sell enough books at the beginning of the year, you might be eligible for an early payment discount with your printer. You can also better estimate how many books you’ll need, so you don’t end up buying more than you can sell!)
9. Sell Senior and Business Ads over the summer - Just because they go in the back of the book doesn’t mean you have to do them last! In fact, if you sell your ads over the summer, your staff can already begin working on pages as soon as school starts (without having to wait for events to happen). This means you will have your first set of pages ready for that first deadline! And if you’re a Herff Jones customer and you send in pages early, you can get credit for future late days! (ask your rep for more details)
10. Open next year’s kit and toss out this year’s out - Your publisher kits should be arriving about now. Go through all the new stuff, and toss the old stuff out. There is no reason to keep old kit materials lying around! Take time to learn what’s new for next year, so you don’t get caught by surprise the day before a deadline, or miss out on an exciting new feature!
11. Clean out your photographs and file cabinets - Start next school year on a clean slate, archive all your photographs and then delete them off your harddrives. You don’t want them getting mixed up with next year’s photos! Also, have editors clean out section/editor cubbies, mailboxes, etc…

If you have any end-if-the-year tips, we’d love to hear them! You can add your comments below…

“Distribution Day” - Possibly the most exciting day in the year for many students, yet with the potential of being the most chaotic and stressful day for an adviser and the yearbook staff. With all the information you’ll have to remember, here’s a list to help keep you on track:

(TIP: Get a binder with 8-tabs to organize each of these items in preparation for the big day)

1. Distribution Memos - Keep a copy of all your emails and other communication about yearbook distribution (i.e. when students should be released from class, names of students who pre-ordered books, list of staff members who need to be released from class to help, etc…). This info should be handy in case an administrator, teacher, student, or staff member asks for a reminder. Although you may have memorized all this information by now, you’ll be surprised what you can forget when you’ve got several 100 students shouting at you for their yearbook.
2. Volunteer Info - If you are recruiting volunteers outside of your yearbook staff, keep the information here (names, contact info, time frame, station assignment, etc…). Create a check-in sheet to check-in the volunteers as they arrive, and make copies of instructions for their stations. Make sure instructions are typed out and photocopied. Volunteers will arrive at different times, and you don’t want to have to spend all your time training each one. Have a back-up plan for in case volunteers don’t show up. For example, you may want to assign a couple “floaters.”
3. Staff Jobs - Make sure every member of your staff knows what’s expected of them. If they are going to be moving boxes of books, make sure they arrive properly dressed. Once week before distribution, hand out a list of expectations (i.e. what time to show up, where to meet you, what part of the alphabet they will be helping with, what to do if they have a delivery question, and what to wear). You may want to let them know that any staffer/editor who violates the rules will be sent back to class. In which case, you also want to prepare for back-ups.
4. Pre-Order Database - Make sure you have a complete and accurate list of all students who have pre-ordered their books. Have this list divided by grade level and then sorted by last name. Set up a “Problem Table” and provide the staff at this table with a copy (or several copies) as well.
   
5. Complimentary Book List - If you budget for complimentary books (i.e. for the principal, library, PTA, etc…), make a list of who is receiving one, who is delivering it, and when it was delivered. Make sure you set these books aside as soon as your books arrive, so they aren’t accidentally sold. If possible, have a staff member hand deliver the book, and get a signature in return. Keep these signatures in your binder for future record.
6. Special Requests - Many times and for many reasons, you will need to deliver a book through the mail, leave it in the office for parent pick-up, or allow a sibling/friend/neighbor to pick up a book for someone. Keep a list of all special requests here, and some sort of proof that you followed through with the request. Anyone picking up a book for someone else should sign for it. If you have to mail a book, use certified mail, and get a receipt.
7. Delivery Problems/Suggestions - People are going to have opinions of how you can do things better next year. Whether it’s about the book or the actual distribution process, keep a form handy where you can jot down their suggestion, name, and contact info. They might actually have some good ideas for you, or at the very least, they will feel as though you are taking them seriously.
8. Notes - Keep a place where you can make your own notes of what went well and what didn’t. Not enough pens at stations? Too many people at the problem booth, but you needed more for crowd control? Not enough food to feed volunteers? etc… Don’t count on being able to remember it for next year. Remember, that’s a whole year away!

Remember, the more prepared you are, the smoother your day will be! And if you have any distribution tips and tricks, we’d love to hear them! Please share your comments below…

Yay! You’re done with your yearbook! All you have to do now is wait for them to arrive. Here are 5 things you should do in preparation for your book delivery:

1. Observe the 48 hour rule - Do not say anything negative about the book or find any errors for 48 hours. You and your students have worked hard and you deserve to celebrate your accomplishments.
2. Remember that it’s the process, not the product - The yearbook is done by students, and it is truly incredible what they have produced. There will be mistakes, and that is OK.
3. Don’t panic - If you find a major error or omission, call your rep! We have quick and easy fixes for many common errors. (Example: If you find inappropriate copy and your book is printed on 100# paper, you can remove type with a pencil eraser.)
4. Secure your books - Yearbooks are a hot commodity, and even the best kids can be tempted. Store your books in a safe location with limited access. Organized, supervised distribution can minimize the potential for theft.
5. Overrun copies - Sometimes, the plant sends extra books to cover damages and additional sales. You are charged for these books on your final invoice. If you find a damaged book or do not sell the extra copies, tear out the title page of those books and return them with your bill for a credit (HJ Customers only. For overrun policy of other printers, please contact your rep).

Here’s to a happy delivery and stress-free distribution! Whatever you do, remember to take time and congratulate you and your staff for a job well done!!!

I know. Your first thought to this headline is, “I run my yearbook program like a real-world business. How come I’m not getting recognition?”

It’s amazing how many people still think of yearbook as a “glorified photo album”. Many administrators still believe they can just throw anyone into your yearbook class because all your doing is “taking pictures and putting them in a book. How hard is that?”

Well, kudos to the yearbook advisers at Nauset Regional High School in Massachusetts for getting their local paper “The Cape Codder” to publish a story about their yearbook program. It probably helped that a yearbook staffer, who wrote the article, is an intern at the paper. You can read the article here:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/orleans/news/education/x844655140/Making-memories-Yearbook-run-like-real-world-business

Maybe if more schools got local papers to run stories about the “behind the scenes” in yearbook production, schools and administrators will start appreciating yearbook class as a program that teaches students much more than “scrapbooking” skills.