Jim Jordan's 40 Things To Do After The Yearbook Is Done

Photo by Abby Palos

JIM JORDAN’S 40 THINGS TO DO AFTER THE YEARBOOK IS DONE

JIM JORDAN’S 40 THINGS TO DO AFTER THE YEARBOOK IS DONE All the pages have been sent to the plant. But there are still nine weeks to go before the end of the year. Now what? What is there still left to do? What do you need to do to get ready for the end of the year? How can you begin preparing for the next book? What can you do with the staff that will be not only educationally sound but fun and time well spent? Here are more than 40 projects, activities and essentials for you to consider to fill this important time of the year. Don’t let it slip away. Plan ahead and make it meaningful. Be sure to carefully and clearly map out these nine weeks well before the time arrives. Then everything will fall into place and there will be no guilt about wasting these days.

Photo by Madison Tenorio

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YOUR YEARBOOK IS DONE! 1. MEMORIALIZE THE MOMENT

Develop a staff tradition that memorializes the moment you finished the book and sent the last pages to the plant. It is the moment everyone has been looking forward to since the instant the last book was finished. Training in the spring; going to yearbook camp in the summer; working at deadline nights, sometimes on Saturdays and holidays while everyone else is out doing what they want to. All of this hard work and dedication have been building up to this moment — that instant when you press the button and the final pages take off to the plant. Create a sign that becomes a permanent fixture in the yearbook room. When I first started advising, to commemorate the moment we finished the book, we would make a large poster on poster paper, which would hang on the wall of the yearbook room for weeks. Then, in the early 90s, we started creating a more permanent sign. We used 11 x 14 legal-sized paper. I’m not sure why. It was just handy at the time. The most prominent part of the sign was the exact time and date we finished. And, of course, we all signed it. Sometimes, we included caricatures of the staff; and as the years went on, it became a hand drawn version of the cover including our fonts with the exact time and date we sent in those final pages. For the first five or six years, we posted the signs on the top of the cupboards in the yearbook room. When the cupboards were covered, I decided to have them framed. Every year, the editors and staff look forward to gathering together to sign this poster. If you are in the room when the book is finished and the final pages are uploaded, you get to sign. People come to work that day just so they can be there for the signing. Everyone loves the idea that all the hard work they have done in that room will be remembered long after they have graduated. When students return to visit, they always love to look at their sign with their names on it. Memorialize your year on a ceiling tile. Leland Mallet, CJE, and his staff at Legacy High School in Mansfield, Texas, commemorate the finishing of each book by painting a ceiling tile in their yearbook room. In the early versions, they painted the tile and all the editors signed their names on it. Over the past few years, they have not only signed it, but it has become a version of their cover design. Once you enter their room, all you have to do is look up to see the legacy of their leadership and hard work.

Memorialize the Moment. Decamhian “We Finished at” final deadline sign is created by Decamhian editor-in-chief Tayleigh Green and signed by editor-in chief Ashley Krause.

Look up . The editors at Legacy High School memorialize the completion of their book by painting and signing one of the ceiling tiles in their yearbook room.

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CELEBRATE THAT YOU DID IT AND IT’S DONE! 2. TAKE THE EDITORS OUT TO DINNER Depending on the exact time you finish the book, take your editors out to dinner immediately after. This was impossible the year we finished at 3:30 in the morning! If you wait too long, everyone starts to go in different directions and it can be impossible to coordinate. We picked a restaurant that the editors love, and we celebrated together on the exact day we finished.

4. THANK THE STAFF WITH A PIZZA PARTY How can we celebrate without

pizza? Bring in the good stuff. Invite the principal, your favorite teachers and the custodians to celebrate with you.

Pizza Time! Celebrate making that final deadline with a staff pizza party. Nothing says yearbook like pizza.

5. EAT CAKE, COOKIES, CUPCAKES My last year advising, our Walsworth area manager brought us a huge, gorgeous, delicious chocolate cake. If your

area manager isn’t available, ask some of your yearbook parents to bake for you. Cookies. Cakes. Pies. You have earned this.

6. THANK YOUR SCHOOL STAFF

Celebrate together! The Decamhian editors celebrate with a meal together at a local restaurant. 3. APPLE CIDER TOAST Have a toast with the entire staff. When you start to celebrate, you need to remember the staff and all they have done on this journey. On the day after we sent in the final pages, I brought in sparkling cider in those cool green bottles that look like wine bottles. We even had those little plastic champagne glasses that we reuse every year for this occasion. Pour the cider. Raise your

Send them an email that lets them know they are appreciated. Soon after those final pages were whisking their way to the plant, I would send a version of this email to my school staff. It was a

great way to let the staff know what an important part they play in the creation of the book and to have them recognize your staff members in their classes. 7. RELAX. CATCH YOUR BREATH (FOR JUST A MINUTE) Most likely, the past several weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster ride. All the work that had to be completed since the first of February has been monumental. It’s OK to relax a little and get away from yearbook for a while. The best strategy would be to finish right before spring break, which will give everyone some much needed time away from it all.

glasses. Make speeches. Take lots of photos. Post them everywhere. You all have just accomplished something amazing and unforgettable.

Cheers! Be sure to celebrate all you have accomplished with everyone on staff.

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FIRST DECISION 8. ARE YOU MAKING A SUPPLEMENT?

Are you covering the rest of the year? This is the most significant decision of the spring, which will need to have been made before the year began: if and how you are going to cover the last weeks of the school year. One option would be to produce a supplement that comes out with the book and covers spring sports and other activities, but will most likely not include prom and graduation. This is a great option, as you can have it printed by Walsworth. Before distribution, you will be able to insert it into the back of the book. Another option is to produce a supplement that includes graduation and prom, but it will need to be passed out in the summer or when school begins in the fall, or be mailed to the students. You can put next year’s editors in charge of this project, and it is a great way to give them a chance to design and produce pages. You also may choose to do “wrap around” coverage, which will cover the last nine weeks of the school year but will be included at the beginning of the following year’s book. With this option, the staff keeps chugging right along with just a short break between the coverage of the end of one year and the beginning of another. Early on in my career as an adviser, we always created a supplement that we finished in the summer, and it included prom and graduation. Over the years, we found fewer and fewer students were actually picking them up, so we questioned the importance of putting in all the time and effort. The last supplement we did was for our 50th Anniversary, “It’s About Time,” volume, which utilized week-by-week chronological coverage — so it only made sense to extend our coverage as closely as possible to the end of the year.

Photo by Cassie Bess

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DON’T FORGET 9. KEEP ON TOP OF YOUR PROOFS

If you are an InDesign-produced book, depending on your arrangement with the publisher, you will have proofs to finish. At the very minimum, you will have at least the pages from the final two deadlines to proof and make any necessary changes to improve them. In case you rushed a bit to make that final deadline, here is your chance to edit and make them perfect. If you are an Online Design school, you have been carefully proofing each spread before you send it and no proofs are needed. 10. KEEP RECRUITING Over the years, recruiting changed for me. We used to have a window of time in which we went around to classes, accepted applications, held interviews and chose our staff for next year. The whole process took about four to six weeks, and we were done. If you missed this window, you missed out on being a part of the creation of the yearbook. Over time at my school, I began to notice a change. Some great prospective yearbook staff members were having a difficult time, so early in the year, committing to their schedule for the next school year. We still went through the same process, but I began to leave spots open for students who later realized they wanted to be a part of the staff. It seemed, once August rolled around, maybe they really didn’t want to take BC Calculus after all, and so they had a spot open for yearbook. Your school and your staff may have the culture such that you can easily fill your staff with the best and the brightest, but my main point is to be flexible in your recruiting process, or you may lose some great kids who can make a tremendous difference in your yearbook program.

Photo by Hope Powell

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The toughest obstacle for me has been that registration for next year’s classes always comes at the time of the year when we are the busiest putting out this year’s book. How can I really care about next year when this one isn’t even done yet? The dilemma is you have to care. A great yearbook can be created only with the best kids. You must find ways to find them and get them to apply to be on staff. The best recruiting tool I used over the years is the personal letter. I would send an email to the English teachers, art and photo teachers, and colleagues who really understand what it takes to be in yearbook, seeking names of students they feel might be a good fit for the staff. We also would go to classes and take names of anyone who might be interested. Then after checking their grades, I and the editors would send them a personal letter telling them the benefits of being on yearbook – while creating a book that will last a lifetime, they will develop real world leadership, communication, technology, writing and design skills that they can use in any career path they decide to pursue. Recruiting is something a great adviser has to do throughout the year. We are always looking for kids who are talented, who are hard workers, who are responsible and those who see the value in working hard on a longterm project. Yearbook is not for everyone, but anyone can benefit from being on staff. For more on going recruiting strategies, download a copy of the ebook, Recruiting Staffs: Methods to the Madness.

Photo by Catherine McCarthy

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GET READY - THE BABY’S COMING 11. DEVELOPING YOUR DISTRIBUTION PLAN This is one of the essentials of your spring activities. You must come up with a detailed plan of how you want to get the books to your student body. If you sell 500, that will be much easier than if you sell 2,500. There are many different approaches you can take, and you and your administration need to discuss and agree upon what logistics best fit the needs of the staff and the school. Here are a few questions you will need to consider: • When will your book arrive from the publisher? Give yourself a couple of days between when the books arrive and when you distribute them. You will have time to look them over and do any preparations before you pass them out. • When will you pass them out? Will you pass them out during school time, after school or at a distribution event you plan? • Where will you pass them out? What location is best to maximize the speed and efficiency of the distribution? For years, we held an event where students returned to school at 5 p.m. to get their book, enjoy free food and take the time to sign books. Over time, fewer and fewer students were returning to the event to get the book; so recently, we partnered with the student government to host a distribution event right after school. The main purpose of distribution is to get as many books into the hands of as many students as quickly as possible. To increase the number of books that are distributed, some schools are handing the books directly to students in the last class period of the day. This takes much more planning and managing the logistics, but it will ensure the highest number of books quickly get distributed. Over the years, we found that many students are unaware that they have a book (their parent bought it for them at registration but forgot to tell them, or they just forget to pick it up); some years, we had close to 10% of the sold books remaining unclaimed. For more information on planning the distribution of your book, check out our ebook, Distribution Day: The Big Reveal. 12. SELL MORE BOOKS Have a group of students plan a major sales push before you increase the price to what books will cost at and after distribution. Whether or not you sell the books at school or through your online Walsworth school store, put together a promotional plan to boost your sales at this time of year. As the end of the school year approaches, make the student body more aware that the books are coming and the only way to ensure they get one at the best price is to buy it now.

Photo by Will Paustian

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13. CREATE A PROMOTIONAL VIDEO A number of schools use this time to produce a promotional video to create buzz about the book’s arrival or to promote sales. Select a team of students who have video interest and experience, and let them create. Alyssa Boehringer and her staff at McKinney High School in McKinney, Texas, saw a Honda commercial in which yearbook photos turn to live action video, which inspired them to create a promotional video that rivaled the original ad. To promote our 50 th Anniversary book, my students created a video that highlighted all 49 previous yearbook covers and encouraged everyone to buy the 50 th before we sold out. 14. CREATE AN ALL-SCHOOL SLIDESHOW. Create a slideshow using yearbook photos — that are both in the book and that didn’t make it — taken by your photographers to create buzz about the book’s arrival. Plan an assembly or rally at the end of the year, and this can be a part of it. We had a Senior Farewell Rally and a slideshow that featured the graduating seniors was a big part of it. If you can’t have a rally or assembly, show the slideshow on your school media program or post it on your school web site. 15. CREATE AND DELIVER A SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN. Every yearbook staff should have a social media team to gather information and push details about the book out to your school and community. Use Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat (and for the old folks, Facebook) to promote joining the staff, increase sales, and get the school excited about the arrive of the book. Using social media effectively can have a huge influence on many layers of the yearbook process and will take as much time as your team is willing to give to it. To see other ways schools are promoting their yearbook, download a copy of our eBook, Creative Ideas for Selling Your Yearbook.

Photo by Kylie Jones

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STAFF PROJECTS — KEEP ‘EM BUSY IF YOU NEED TO

16. STAFF PORTFOLIOS. As an ongoing activity, have all staffers keep and update their work in an online portfolio that includes a cover letter and a resume. Renee Burke from Boone High School in Orlando, Florida, modeled her portfolio project after the one students put together for National Journalist of the Year. Though not as detailed, it has all the year’s clips and features; a piece that shows the most growth (first, middle and final draft); and if they are a returning staffer, they also must reflect on how their portfolio shows their growth as a writer, designer or photographer. 17. CREATE A MANUAL FOR THE EDITOR WHO WILL HAVE THE JOB NEXT YEAR. Once the final proofs are done and distribution is planned, have the current editor(s) make a manual for the editor(s) who will be doing their job(s) next year. Include the following: • Detailed list of everything that needs to be done in that position • Timeline of when each important task needs to be completed • A “what I know now that I wish I knew then” section that will help the new editor avoid mistakes that the current editor has made • A list of what the current editor has learned while holding this position

18. YEARBOOK RESEARCH PROJECT. Do you have seniors who have nothing to do when the book is done? Do they sit around doing NOTHING? This is the project for them. Assign each of them (though it could easily be done in teams) a specific tradition, activity, club or event at your school and have them research all the information about it found in the previous books you have in your yearbook library. As a final project, they must write a summary report of all their findings and present it to the class. It’s fun to find out how many winning seasons the football team has had in a row or what class has won the most homecoming competitions. It is also a great way to emphasize the importance of the yearbook as a history book and reference source. Very quickly, they can see what years did the best reporting and in what years there was very little coverage being done. 19. DEEP CLEAN THE YEARBOOK SPACE. Believe it or not, there are always students who love to clean and they take pride in doing a great job of it. Be sure to ask for volunteers for this one, but you can gently nudge them to take it on. At a minimum, be sure to do a thorough job of cleaning and disinfecting all your keyboards. They tend to get filthy no matter how hard you work to keep them clean.

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MORE TIME TO CELEBRATE

20. CELEBRATE YOUR BABY’S BIRTH In the fall, many staffs around the country hold a mock staff wedding ceremony together to symbolically unite the staff and bond them together as a family. Following the metaphor, it’s completely appropriate after nine months have passed to celebrate the birth of your new baby with a shower and birth announcements. Another excuse for a yearbook party! Once the yearbook arrived in May and we had a chance to examine it carefully to see just how gorgeous she was, we would post on social media to all our friends around the country. Some staffs hold design contests to see who can design the best birth announcements. Others pass out bubble gum cigars on distribution day. Love your baby and celebrate the birth! 21. PLAN A STAFF BANQUET One of the highlights of our year is always the yearbook staff banquet we hold during the last week of April or first week of May to kick off the end-of-the-year activities. The original purpose, beyond celebrating that we had created an amazing book, was to let all the parents know more of what we had been doing together, working such long and hard hours, since school began. We would have it in the banquet hall of a local restaurant, trying to keep the cost as reasonable as possible. The staff would dress up in their best clothes and, one year, it was the Monday after prom, so everyone wore their prom dresses and tuxedos. We invited administrators and teachers who the editors felt had supported us and to whom they felt particularly close, and they were named our “honored guests.”

Banquet Recognition . The Decamhian staff kicks off the end-of-the-year events with a staff banquet to celebrate with parents, teachers and friends the hard work they have done together to create the yearbook.

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I give a year-in-review summary of all that went into putting the book together, but the editors-in-chief are always the masters of ceremonies, passing out fun and creative awards to each and every staff member. Staffers might get a gag gift or a trophy around a specific theme. One year, we gave little Academy Award trophies, and everyone always gets a theme-based certificate created by the editors. I then take the opportunity to thank and speak about the accomplishments of every senior, and end by celebrating the amazing accomplishments of each editor. We end the night with a slideshow of photos, gathered throughout the year, of us creating the book. The hugs and group photos that happen before we all leave always leave me with a great sense of accomplishment and pride about what the year we have just completed means to me, the staff and their parents, together. Many staffs hold this kind of event on campus, but wherever you have it, be sure to plan this kind of a year-end celebration. 22. PLAN A STAFF SIGNING PARTY The evening before the book is distributed, the staff gathers at a staffer’s house to eat, laugh, admire our baby and sign each other’s books. It’s relaxed and fun. Usually, we have someone’s parent barbecue hamburgers and hot dogs, and the staff brings the rest of the food. The weather is usually great. Sometimes, we are at a house with a pool and everyone swims. One of the main reasons we have spring delivery is so everyone can continue that great American tradition of signing yearbooks, and the staff gets a head start on everyone else. 23. MAKE STAFF THEME SHIRTS The editors always design a T-shirt with an echo of the cover design on it along with every staffer’s name and position. The goal is to wear it on distribution day and beyond to promote the book. In recent years, we have had two T-shirts: one, in the fall, for staffers to wear when they are out on assignment; the other, to promote the book at distribution time as well as to wear with pride, celebrating they are a yearbook staff member.

Our Time to Sign. Gather as a staff to sign your yearbooks before you distribute it to the entire school.

Staff Shirts. Design a shirt to promote your theme on distribution day

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START THINKING ABOUT NEXT YEAR’S STAFF TRAINING 24. HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE TRAINING Depending on the responsibilities of each staffer during the year, you will need to significantly advance their knowledge and skill with both the hardware and software you use to produce the book. In the organizational structure of my staff, most of the design work is done by the editorial team. So an average staff member has little knowledge of how both our computers, our network and InDesign work to the level necessary to produce a book at the level we demand. This time of year is a perfect time to begin that in depth training process. If you are using Online Design, it is also a great time to begin teaching how to create and build pages for submission. The first assignment to begin the training process is to find an ad that relies on type and photos, and to recreate it using the hardware and software. 25. MAKE A MINI YEARBOOK The best way to learn the hardware and software is to have an assignment to create something. This project was the major focus of the returning staffers for the entire end of the year. Each staffer is required to create a 16-page mini yearbook that they print out and paste together in thumbnail format. I start them copying several award-winning yearbook spreads that are fairly easy to understand and emulate. This process teaches them how to set up a spread template; place, size and move page elements; and understand the use of columns. There is a weekly assignment to help ensure the project gets done by the last week of school. If you aren’t strict about this, you will have too many staffers rushing to finish during the last week of school and even after the final bell on the last day.

Photo by Alexus Cleavenger

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Other spreads included in the book are mug spreads (which will help students learn how to build mug spreads five months before they need to!), spreads they design entirely on their own (be sure they build them from inspiration or continue to let them use spreads from other schools, or they will mostly be ugly and wrong) and an autobiographical spread where they create a spread that tells the story of their life. Have them choose a theme and several specific design elements to carry though all parts of the book. Before they begin, be sure to give them very detailed directions about your expectations and have weekly check points to guide their progress. The final booklets can then be presented to the entire staff during finals. 26. PUT ON A THEME COMPETITION Another way to get the returning staffers to begin thinking about next year and their book is to have a theme-development competition. They can do the project individually or in teams. Have them create a theme package that includes a cover, endsheet, title page, a theme section/opening spread and one spread all mocked up as a full-size yearbook. These can be presented to and voted on by the class. Create a rubric as a staff to ensure everyone understands what goes into a strong theme and its development. Remember, though, this is just an exercise to develop staff skills. DO NOT use this as a way to pick your theme for the next year. Your team will continue to learn and grow throughout the spring and summer, and the theme they pick and the designs they create will continue to improve. Wait as long as you can before school starts before you totally commit to a theme and a design look. Make sure you love it and believe it will help you tell the story of your year.

Photo by Jivan West

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EXPAND YOUR AUDIENCE 27. SEND YOUR BOOK FOR A NATIONAL, REGIONAL OR STATE CRITIQUE Send your book into one of the critique services to get objective feedback on your students’ work. Both the National Scholastic Press Association at the University of Minnesota and the Columbia School Press Association at Columbia University offer detailed critiques of all publications at the national level. Some, but not all, state and regional press associations also offer detailed personal critiques of your book. These critiques may seem pricey, but the objective commentary you get, in conjunction with their detailed guidebook of what goes into a quality publication, are invaluable. When the critique comes back in late summer or early fall, each editor is required to read through the comments and gauge how well they are doing in improving areas of weakness, and how they are continuing to uphold what the critiques said our staff is doing well. This can also be a great time for an editor roundtable, where the editorial board discusses what needs to be improved in the book and how they plan to meet their goals for the year. A warning, though – these critiques are done by one person in a limited amount of time. Choose to take whatever criticism may be offered with that in mind.

Photo by Briley Kemper

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28. CREATE JPEGS AND SHARE YOUR BOOK Great yearbook staffs have always benefited from sharing copies of their books with other schools. Sometimes, however, financial concerns may dictate that you have few, if any, books to share. Another great way to share your work with other schools is to do it digitally. In the spring, I teach one of the editors to make a digital copy of each spread in the book. In InDesign, it is amazingly easy to do: • Go into the File menu and scroll down to Export. A screen will appear; toward the bottom, find the format button and choose JPEG. • Click the Save button at the bottom right, and an Export JPEG screen will appear. You will see the page range of the spread you have chosen. • Be sure the SPREAD button is ticked. Quality should be MAXIMUM. • The only decision you have to make is the resolution. Most presenters recommend choosing 144 PPI, which will maximize their resolution in PowerPoint or Keynote presentations. • Keep everything else in the default settings. Creating JPEGs of each spread is different in Online Design. The simplest way is to open the Spread Details window by clicking on the spread line (not the preview) on the home page, which gives you the largest preview in Online Design. Right-click and save the image. However, the resolution is not really sufficient. All text is blurry, for example. Another option is to open the spread and take a screenshot using whatever is native to your operating system. On a Mac, I suggest using the Grab utility.

Photo by Jeff Zimmerly

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TRAIN YOUR EDITORS 29. NEXT YEAR’S EDITORS PRODUCE THE SUPPLEMENT OR CONTINUE COVERAGE THAT WILL BE USED TO START NEXT YEAR’S BOOK As mentioned, this is a decision that will be made before you begin producing pages of the book. If you do produce a supplement, this will take up much of the time you have after you have finalized the book. You will just continue to produce pages as you have all year. You will have seven to nine weeks to produce what you may have cranked out in two weeks earlier in the spring. For many years, we produced a supplement that was finished and distributed in the summer to include graduation and proms. After very few seemed interested in picking it up, we stopped creating it. The only way that producing a supplement makes sense to me now is to include as much coverage as you can, print it and get it into the actual book. I had one horrible year when I put the rising seniors in complete charge of it. They did a great job making the supplement, but then they were burned out before they started their actual book. That next year was the most difficult year of my advising career. 30. DEFINE EDITOR POSITIONS, ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES This seems basic, but it can be so easily forgotten and overlooked. You must take the time to clearly set up exactly what each editor in each position is expected to do. Before the year ever begins, they need to know exactly what they are signing up to do. From the adviser perspective, it will remind you that if you have these expectations, you must show them and teach and train them how to meet them. In my worst days as an adviser, I too often had expectations for editors to do things I never told them they were supposed to do and things I never showed them how to do. Once these requirements are spelled out, I put them into a clear and concise contract that each editor signed when they were offered that specific staff position. This will save you so much confusion, anger and disappointment if you put this effort in during the spring, before you start work on the next book. Over time, this will become easier as anyone applying for a position will know exactly what they are signing up for.

Photo by Laura Benteman

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31. STUDY A LEADERSHIP BOOK TOGETHER Find a book on leadership you think might be beneficial and read it as an editorial board. Call it your “Editorial Leadership Book Club.” In the spring of 2018, JEA chose Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know by Jill Geisler as their One Book project, and I know of one adviser in Texas who is reading this book with next year’s editorial board. There are hundreds of great leadership books you can choose from. As the adviser, read several throughout the year and pick your favorite to share with your leaders. Here are a few used and recommended by advisers around the country • Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service (A Disney Institute Book). The Disney Institute and Theodore Kinni • Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Daniel Pink • Energy Bus: Ten Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy. Jon Gordon and Ken Blanchard • Fierce Conversations. Susan Scott • Inside The Magic Kingdom: Seven Keys to Disney’s Success. Jon Connellon • Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t. Simon Sinek • Strengths Finder 2.0. Tom Rath • The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. Atul Gawande. • The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. Patrick Lencion • The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference. Macolm Gladwell • The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember. Fred Rogers

• Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. Hanz Finzel • Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know. Jill Geisler 32. EXPAND GRAPHIC PORTFOLIOS.

Every student on staff needs to be keeping a digital design portfolio, where they gather designs that inspire them. This portfolio can be kept on a PowerPoint, Google slides or Google docs, a personal private Pinterest page or something a little more complex, like Trello. This time in the spring should be used to expand that portfolio. Make time each week for staffers to show some of what they are finding and tell how and why it inspires them.

Photo by Kailee Johnson

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33. TAKE A DESIGN FIELD TRIP TOGETHER For a time, I was thinking that you could find all the design inspiration you need online, but lately, that has changed. Some of the magazine distribution sites, like ISSUU and Zinio, are charging for more of the publications they offer; and unless you dig deep, it is too easy to find old, overused inspiration on Pinterest or Google. So there is definitely still a place for the old-fashioned, design-inspiration field trip. The easiest one to do is gather all the editors together and head down to your local bookstore, newsstand or Barnes & Noble, armed with your cell phones. It’s a great way to bond, finding cool design ideas around the magazine rack. Don’t forget to go to the Design/ Graphic Arts section and look through their books as well. If your program can afford it, budget $50-$100 to actually purchase the magazines you love the most. Plus, it’s important to keep supporting our local bookstores. Another great place to find inspiration is your local mall. Check out the bookstores, but also look at the displays and advertising you find. Pay attention to

the colors of any typography being used. Look for reoccurring themes and trends. You might even find a better theme idea than you are currently thinking of using. Have your phone ready and capture what interests you. When you are out and about, you are always on a design-inspiration field trip! Create a time for the editors to share what they have found, and have them explain exactly what they love about each discovery. 34. CREATE MOOD BOARDS Some staffs also create mood boards to gather inspiration in one visual place. The element can be clips from magazines, ads, college lookbooks, anything they have collected that they love the look of — possible font choices, color palettes, interesting layouts. Using a standard poster board, they arrange all their elements and then present them to the class. It has much of the same purpose as the digital portfolio, but it groups all your favorites in one place. 35. TRAIN YOUR LEADERS FOR THE TASK AHEAD Provide as much leadership training as you can to prepare your editors for the task they are facing. Most of the time, we as advisers know how we want them to lead, but we never prepare them with the tools that will help them succeed. 36. REVISE YOUR STAFF MANUAL If you don’t have a staff manual, create one; if you do have one, this is the time to make any needed revisions and updates. The most important parts of our staff manual are the detailed job descriptions of every position on staff — from writer to photographer to managing editor to index editor to editor-in-chief, everyone on staff can look in the manual to know exactly what is expected of them. The other important part of this manual is the style guide, which will answer all the most significant style concerns a staffer will face over and over again. (i.e. is it boys, boy’s or boys’ cross country? Is it one through ten you write out, or does ten become 10?) It will save any editor who reads copy tons of time, especially if the staff actually reads it and learns

From Inspiration to Final Design. Decamhian editor-in-chief Ashley Krause was inspired by a spread in Elle magazine and manipulated the look for her trends spread.

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these style rules they will continually face. Each year, we find style issues that writers are struggling to understand, and we highlight them in the new manual for the next year. Early in the year, we also always have yearbook-style quizzes. If you don’t hold students accountable for learning many of these style issues, they will keep making the same mistakes. Our staff manual also contains a letter from the editors, a letter from the adviser, our policies on handling death and tragedy, our ad policies, how grading is handled, how to sell ads – a multitude of information every staffer needs to know as the year begins. You must develop a plan so the information in it is used. Otherwise, you will have created a cool book with great stuff in it that nobody ever looks at or uses. 37. ATTEND A SPRING CONVENTION One of the most important elements in preparing for the next yearbook year is attending a spring journalism convention. Depending on where you live, there are many great regional conventions put on by state press associations, like ILPC in Texas and FSPA in Florida. The Columbia Scholastic Press Association always holds its spring convention in March, and the National Scholastic Press Association, in partnership with the Journalism Education Association, holds their convention somewhere in the West in April. There is always a lot of learning and inspiration going on at any of these great gatherings of student journalists. Your new editors and staff can learn from many of the best advisers in the country by attending a wide variety of sessions geared to help them prepare to produce their book. I often could tell who my next editors would be based on who was able to work out getting to one of these conventions and how much they engaged in learning at the convention. Plus, it is a great time for the prospective editorial team to begin their own bonding process. The long hike we took together to get up to the Hollywood sign at the Los Angeles JEA/NSPA spring convention in April of 2016 brought us together in a way that really helped us get through the year. If we could hike that far, when we really had no idea where we were going, and make it to our final destination, our final goal together, then we knew we could conquer anything together – even making a yearbook!

Hello Hollywood. At the 2016 JEA/NSPA Spring Convention in Los Angeles, the editors bonded with a treacherous cross country hike from Griffith Park to the Hollywood sign.

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SUMMER PLANNING 38. PLAN FOR SUMMER CAMP

Attending a yearbook camp is a not-to-be-missed experience for every yearbook staff. You will bond as a staff. You will all learn together about what goes in to creating a fantastic yearbook. You will expand your skills in design, writing and photography. You will get feedback from yearbook experts locally and from around the country. You will decide on and begin developing a theme. I can’t imagine starting a yearbook year without going to camp. In the spring, you will need to get commitments from whoever plans to go, as well as start collecting registration forms and deposits. Choose one staffer as camp registration coordinator to be sure you do not miss any deadlines. 39. HAVE A BOOT CAMP AT YOUR SCHOOL If you have the time and energy in the summer, during the week or two before the year begins, run your own mini-camp for your staff at school. Have all new staffers come in to be trained in the basics of interviewing, caption writing, design, coverage and photography. Also, set aside time for the editors to plan how they will lead the class during the first two weeks. You will begin the year with a rolling start that will pay huge dividends. I have always figured that one or two focused days in the summer equal about four to six weeks of training in time available in class once school begins.

Summer Fun. Yearbook staffs around the country bond together while getting a head start on the creation of their next book.

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FALL PLANNING 40. PLAN TO ATTEND A FALL WORKSHOP Start planning to attend one of Walsworth’s Elite Weekends in the fall. Most yearbook companies offer some kind of fall workshop to help you sharpen your skills and develop your theme. Walsworth Yearbooks offers five regional, three-day Elite Weekend workshops where an adviser and select staff members gather to design layouts and deepen your theme concept. Several national award-winning advisers will teach sessions and work with your staff one-on-one to help your book move to the next level. 41. PLAN TO ATTEND A FALL CONVENTION Start planning to attend a fall national convention. It can take weeks to get approval through your district and raise money so more can attend, so get started in the spring. Fall conventions are another great way to build your program. You can get a higher level of inspiration and training. Your students will see in new ways what an important task they have undertaken in creating a yearbook. They can demonstrate their skills in national writing and design contests. They can meet with experts in the Walsworth convention booth to get suggestions for ways to improve their theme, coverage and designs.

Elite Weekend. Walsworth Yearbooks provides Elite Weekend workshops in five locations around the country to help staffs bond together, develop their themes, design layouts, and receive feedback from yearbook experts from around the country.

Photo by Ruby Templeton

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JUST FOR FUN 42. WATCH JOURNALISM MOVIES To keep the end-of-the-year fun, on some Fridays, we would show a journalism based movie like “All the President’s Men,” “Shattered Glass,” “Newsies,” “Spotlight” discussion, no worksheet — just a time to eat popcorn together, relax, and enjoy…and maybe learn just a bit about the power of good journalism. and ”The Post.” Most of the time, that was it. No

MOVIES WITH JOURNALISM THEMES

• “Absence of Malice” (1981) • “All the President’s Men” (1976) • “Bad Education” (2019) • “Dick” (1999) • “His Girl Friday” (1940) • “Newsies” (1992) • “Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (2013) • “Shattered Glass” (2003) • “Spotlight” (2015)

• “State of Play” (2009) • “The Insider” (1999) • “The Post” (2017) • “Undefeated” (2012)

MOST IMPORTANTLY 43. MAKE TIME TO GET AWAY FROM THE RIGORS OF YEARBOOK. This one may be the most important of all. As we all know, yearbook can quickly turn into a 24/7 obsession. You must carefully plan time to get away from it all. Do it for you. I suggest at least three weeks or more where you give yourself permission not to think about yearbook. Do something creative. Climb a mountain. Ride your bike. Go on a long vacation. Hug your family. Leave your phone at home and enjoy those you love the most. Recharge your batteries. The cycle will be starting up soon enough!

Photo by Jeff Zimmerly

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CONTRIBUTORS Special thanks to my Facebook crowdsourcing team for their ideas, wisdom and insight.

• Samantha Berry, Bridgeland High School, Houston, Texas • Alyssa Boehringer, McKinney High School, McKinney, Texas • Jeff Browne, Quill and Scroll, Iowa City, Iowa

• Renee Burke, MJE, Boone High School, Orlando, Florida • Jill Burns, MJE, Hillsborough High School, Tampa, Florida • Mandy Cross, McNiel Middle School, Wichita Falls, Texas • Jonathon Dixon, Corsicana High School, Corsicana, Texas • Mitch Eden, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Missouri • Sarah Gonzalez, Paetow High School, Katy, Texas • Brenda Gorsuch, North Henderson High School, Henderson, North Carolina • Gary Lundgren, National Scholastic Press Association • Tiffany Kopcak CJE, Colonial Forge High School, Stafford, Virginia • Leland Mallett, CJE, Legacy High School, Mansfield, Texas • Terry Nelson, Indiana State University, Terra Haute, Indiana • Sarah Nichols, Whitney High School, Rocklin,California • Megan Palmer, Park Hill South High School, Riverside, Missouri • Christina Porcelli, Plant High School, Tampa, Florida • Margie Raper, Highland Park High School, Dallas, Texas • Michael Simons, Corning Painted Post High School, Corning, New York • Mike Taylor, CJE, Walsworth Yearbooks • C. Bruce Watterson, Yearbook Consultant • Lizabeth Walsh, Northwest Career and Technical Academy, Las Vegas, Nevada • Julie Weeks, CJE, Walsworth Yearbooks • Jessica Young, MJE, Orange Glen High School, Escondido, California

Photo by Jozee King-Cook

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FIND MORE WALSWORTH EBOOKS Walsworth is among the top three yearbook printers in the U.S., and the only family-owned publisher of yearbooks. As a leading provider of resources for yearbook advisers, Walsworth’s focus is making the yearbook creation process easier and more

successful for our schools. Learn more by visiting us at walsworthyearbooks.com.

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