It is that time of year when we are finishing up this year’s book, but it is also the time of year to start thinking about NEXT year’s tome, or more accurately, ways to make yearbook a bigger and more vital part of school culture. Successful programs are built upon this idea: they create a book that students not only want, but also need as part of the school experience. There are many factors that contribute to yearbook culture; one that is often overlooked is the composition of the staff - its ethnic and gender diversity - and the quality of the students.

Let’s face it, staffs need to reflect the diversity of the school to better reflect, represent and capture the many student voices telling the story of the year. Advisers have some control over this, though they are somewhat at the mercy of Guidance and schedule conflicts. Nevertheless, taking charge over staff recruitment can give advisers an edge in a number of ways.

Recruit for quality, too. Ask other teachers for recommendations of strong students. Build your staff your way by seeking out good writers, good workers and self-motivators. Some advisers require an application to be on staff and even letters of recommendation. Others work with their guidance departments to put together a short list of students with higher level reading and writing scores. The point is to be proactive. It helps to get an administrator on your side, too. Explain to them that you want to put together a high quality staff so that the yearbook can be a more effective public relations tool for the school. The subtext here, of course, is that a higher quality staff has the potential to promote the school and its leaders more effectively than a mediocre one.

Next, invite the recruits to a yearbook reception. Feed them. Talk to them, or invite us to talk to them, about how cool it can be to be the historians of a year, the photographers of greatness, writers of dramatic stories, and designers of groovy spreads: talk the experience up! If you had a strong staff this year, or at least a couple of strong editors, get them involved. Let success sell success. Recruits need to know that yearbook is not only a commitment, but also a class that will give them opportunities in business, design, writing and, most importantly, in the telling of the only published chronicle of the year.

The diversity, energy, commitment and skill of your staff are major factors to increasing the quality of the book, the rest of the school’s perception of the book, and ultimately the success of the program. Don’t overlook them.

(Click on the photo to enlarge)

What if parents and students, coaches and spectators, teachers and staff could get photos to the yearbook crew quickly and easily? Now they can, with eShare, a Herff Jones internet site to which school stakeholders can upload their pics. Advisers gain full control of the photos through a secure adviser log-in and decide which to make available for use in the book.

We’ll provide a flier to photocopy and send home with students, a school code for community members to use, a website banner and a link to put on your school’s website. You’ll provide the cut-off date for photo submission. To the plant, you’ll also provide “up” dates and “down” dates for site activation, and will learn the easy steps for downloading or using the photos.

Now, imagine growing the  culture of your school in which EVERYONE can help  tell the story of the year. The magic just got easier.

Contact Steven or Thomas for more information and to sign up for this powerful new tool.

Need some last minute ideas for book sales? Here are a few.

Tip #1. Despite all our technological sophistication, no sales drive works better than having the yearbook staff ask, face to face. Identify the students in school who have not purchased a book, divide their names among staff members, come up with a cute handout, and make personal contact an assignment with a grade for each of the students. Prior to the sales push, have them practice their approach with each other. Help them with a script, if needed. For a real nice touch, make sure you let the unsold students you are approaching know they are in the book. If your  staff members can jot the page numbers on the flier on which their assigned students are featured in pictures, captions, or stories, even better. Include ordering info on the flier, and the suggestion that students share the info with their parents. Advisers, consider having an incentive for the staff member who makes the most sales this way.

Tip #2. Same as above, but target faculty. It’s much more effective to have students divide up the administration and faculty who have not purchased books and approach them personally - much better than a cold email.

Tip #3. Use your principal. A well-delivered and enthusiastic phone-home or letter home from the the school’s leader can be very effective. Be sure to include pricing and deadlines. Principals, perhaps more than anyone, want the book to be a financial success.

Tip #4. Yearbooks make a great holiday gift. Let parents know they can purchase the book as a present. They obviously won’t get it until late May, so print up a “gift certificate” that purchasers will get now.

Education. Recognition. Motivation. Support. All are hallmarks of how Herff Jones and the Yearbook Connection approach schools and the world of yearbook journalism. We are excited about an another element we are adding to the mix: community. This year, the Yearbook Connection is piloting a program to help support newer or less experienced advisers by building strong connections not only with the Herff Jones yearbook team, but also with a network of experienced and tested advisers. Why not take advantage of as many resources as possible?

Contact Steven or Thomas to get more information about becoming a mentor, or getting some help from one or more of our talented advisers willing to share their time and knowledge.

Did you know that Herff Jones is co-sponsor of the prestigious Principal’s Leadership Award? Given to 100 students nationwide every year, the award recognizes well-rounded individuals based on their leadership skills, participation in service organizations and clubs, academic record, achievement in the arts and sciences, and employment history. The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and Herff Jones award scholarship amounts of $1,000 to $12,000 to exemplary seniors. Consider who your school might nominate and check out the NASSP website for details: http://www.principals.org/s_nassp/sec_inside.asp?CID=538&DID=48172

You may have noticed in eDesign that text frames seem to disappear. Once you draw them and then click somewhere else, the frame is no longer visible. It’s really still there, but can be hard to find. From a design point of view, it is sometimes nice to have those frames visible so that you can see and plan for the placement of text elements.

To make the frames stay visible, go to the view menu in eDesign, and select “show frames.” This will make all frames that you’ve drawn remain visible on the spread.

If you need to hide the frames, simply go back to the view menu and select “hide frames.” The same process can be used for guides and columns, too.

We appreciate all the feedback and questions you’ve been directing to us on eDesign, not to mention the layouts and spreads that are taking shape. Keep up the good work!

If you haven’t started already, and you’re planning on doing an index, now’s a great time to start. Although schools sometimes wait until proofs to build an index, the Herff Jones Index Builder makes the task quite easy. In fact, because the program can be run multiple times, it serves as an excellent way to generate a list of who’s been in the book how many times. It also helps catch name spelling discrepancies.

What to index? First of all, all students and faculty should be indexed whenever they appear in the book. This includes portraits and candids, as well as any time their names appear in print. Indexing programs sort through InDesign page files for names in text, so it is important to accurately name the subjects of photos, give proper attribution for quotes, and properly use names within copy. For example, names in captions should always be first name – last name. The first time a name is used in a copy block or caption, it should be written first name – last name and all subsequent instances should use last name only. By-lines and photo credits should not be indexed. (more…)