The Yearbook World of Scott Geesey
from Jostens Yearbooks of central/northern Pennsylvania
ARCHIVE - APRIL 26, 2020
LET'S GET READY FOR NEXT YEAR: No Better Time Than Now
Hello! Wow, week seven of this "adventure." Let's repeat last week's update below but we'll add one thing that could be of interest to any college, high school or middle school staff...
Our terrific Jostens CAMs (Creative Accounts Managers) and our Jostens Ambassadors are gearing up for three weeks of awesome learning and teaching as staffs start some early work on their 2021 effort. This time what they call their "spring premiere" will be all online, of course. And it begins NEXT WEEK!
Don't miss this FREE event, for ANY school out there (not just Jostens schools.) Each week has a topic with a live webinar on Monday, work at your end during the week, "office hours" on Wednesday to ask questions, and a fun staff contest due Thursday evening. But each individual who wants to take part must register themselves for any week or all three weeks, with recordings available later. The topics?
• Week One: May 4-7 (Editorial Leadership) - click here to register.
• Week Two: May 11-14 (Inspiration & Trends) - click here to register
• Week Three: May 18-21 (Concept Development) - click here to register
Don't miss out on this first of its kind event, one I've been waiting for for years. Our six speakers over three weeks have combined yearbook experience of well over a century. Now you can take advantage of that knowledge.
And speaking of great things online, let's repeat this again this week - for advisers and administrators out there, our Jostens Renaissance folks are running an online series of twice-a-week sessions designed to help during this crisis. Every Monday and Friday at 12 Noon ET you can watch live sessions on Facebook and Twitter with ideas and tips for any school - Motivation Mondays and Graduation Fridays. And afterward look for a recap on those social media outlets as well as our main Renaissance website at www.jostensrenaissance.com. Definitely worth watching - and sharing out to YOUR audience!
Please take some time to check out what they are offering, follow them on Facebook or Twitter, and then see how you can use their materials with your audience, ANY school.
Don't wait to start your 2021 yearbook work, let's start now with some basics...
Fall yearbook staffs are working away while some spring book staffs are now working on their spring supplement. Most of us may be stuck at home but there is still plenty to do. But at some point it's time to start looking ahead to next year's 2021 effort.
In a NORMAL year at this point we would be about ready to start holding our annual spring workshops featuring lots of learning and fun, and terrific work sessions with one of our awesome Jostens custom cover artists. Obviously that's not going to happen this year. As this is written we have no idea when we'll be able to do our regular workshop events again, but I'm sure that when they resume staffs will flock to them just to be able to get out and around other people again!
But in the meantime, what to do NOW? If we wait until so-called lockdown orders are lifted we may be waiting a LONG time depending on where you live. So let's not wait because there are some basic items that any yearbook adviser and staff can do right now, remotely and otherwise.
Let's run down some quick notes to consider...
ORGANIZATION: After all these years I think many advisers have discovered that their staff organization leaves much to be desired. In some cases there really WASN'T any organization, It was just the adviser telling kids wnat to do. Then when the shutdown occured the students had no guidance and all work just stopped.
Hopefully this historic situation has shown the value of real student-led editorial organization with the adviser as the publisher at the top. At any newspaper or magazine or book printer, the publisher is the ultimate authority but doesn't run the day to day operations - that's where the editorial staff comes in. Every yearbooking effort no matter the size should have some student editors.
A simple structure is for one student editor-in-chief whose main job is to make sure everyone else is doing their jobs and the group is on schedule and sticking to that year's theme and look. Under the EIC you could have several editor positions like business editor (oversees sales and promotion efforts,) section editors (oversees sports, people, student life, etc.,) photography editor (oversees all photo efforts,) even social media editor (oversees all social media efforts on multiple platforms.)
Remaining staffers could then have roles in one of those sections mentioned above, or for small staffs could have roles in multiple sections. Editors would have regular brief meetings with the people in their group to make sure work is continuing on time, and the editorial staff would meet regularly with the adviser to compare notes.
Some folks like to use an idea called the "maestro method" of organization - every staffer has a set role like writer, photographer, designer, etc. and they work in all areas of the book. Click here for one description about this interesting idea.
The adviser's main job? To make sure everyone stays on task, on schedule and on budget. Give the kids the responsibility and then cut them loose. Most advisers are deathly afraid of such a setup but giving students responsibility for their own product usually leads to a better working staff and a great yearbook.
Imagine if you had such an organization THIS year - student editors would have immediately swung into action organizing their groups remotely with little dropoff of effort. Editorial meetings would have been held by phone or online within the first week of the shutdown so map out the plan for the coming weeks.
RECRUITING NEW STAFF: Now here's something that will have to be done differently because of this situation this year. Here's one idea...
• E-mail fellow teachers, especially English teachers asking for recommendations of students that they think would be a good fit for yearbook staff/class. Look for the usual traits: being self-starting, dependability, writing skills and all the other usual stuff. Hopefully you've always looked for these traits? The era of anything goes for yearbook really should end.
• Take those recommendations and discuss them with your editors (if you have them yet) via Skype, Zoom, FaceTime or however.
• Have the editors reach out to the ones you think are good candidates.
• Do remote interviews with you, your editors and prospective staffers.
• Once you have the entire staff chosen, have a online meeting to get together with some fun icebreaker they can do online.
NEW THEME AND COVER: Once you have your group organized, or at least your leadership group, it's time to plan the new 2021 theme and/or look. Where to get ideas? Check the new 2020 Jostens Look Book for some great inspiration, available for viewing online. Search the Digital Classroom on Jostens Yearbook Avenue, LOTS of ideas in there. Check out top magazines or websites for what they are showing right now.
At some point then you may want to design your new 2021 custom cover, and here I'll make a prediction - our terrific Jostens cover artists will do more live online cover sessions this year than ever before, and probably by a wide margin. No problem - our folks are setup to do this, so if interested contact your Jostens representative to schedule a day and time. Staffers can login from whereever and watch the artist create the cover live on screen with a chance to comment or make changes.
Before any cover session be sure to come up with a basic theme idea and look, then submit that to the artist via your representative so they can do a little prep work in advance. Every artist likes to get ideas in advance, not just start a session cold.
MORE ABOUT STORIES, LESS ABOUT THE USUAL: One thing we have all discovered this spring is that events and groups, which make up the buik of most yearbooks, can be CANCELED. The huge majority of staffs out there have really been caught this year because of cancellations of events, seasons and the like.
As you begin your 2021 planning always keep this in mind - the yearbook is ultimately the story of PEOPLE, not just events and groups. An example - instead of just ploppng down a bunch of baseball photos with a big team photo and maybe one paragraph of their season, consider what STORIES are connected to the team. Perhaps create some module on your star pitcher, maybe something on the coach, or this year's freshman phenom or other players. Show the baseball team through these stories and you'll never be lacking for material no matter what happens.
It's still way early but start doing some lists of story ideas for next year. We're still showing the events and groups of the school year but now in a different way, one that better represents your school and its people.