Coverage is cool. Everyone has stories to tell and opinions to share. How well does your book capture them? A key factor in the perception of the yearbook by the rest of the school is the quality and diversity of coverage the yearbook provides.

Make sure each faculty member has a yearbook liaison. This mean, in all likelihood, that each staff or club member will be assigned multiple faculty with whom they must develop a professional relationship for checking in and finding out what is happening in class, in a club, in a sport – with whatever those faculty are involved. If the school has homeroom periods, consider assigning each of your staff members to teachers by homeroom period, and then add in faculty and staff you don’t have homerooms. Essentially, such a system creates a “faculty beat” for student journalists. It’s great PR, makes other faculty feel important, gives new opportunities for discovering stories and angles, and gives yearbook a proactive image.

Index often. Whether you are using eDesign or InDesign, putting together an index is a piece of cake. However, start early. Index pages even before the first deadline to maintain a list of who is in the book. Use this list to make sure you cover every student and every faculty member, in word or in picture, a minimum number of times, depending on the size of your school. Three entries for everyone is a great goal.

Have a caption for every photo, even very small photos. Name correctly the people in the photo.

Use photo credits and bylines. Staff members deserve credit, and giving it helps builds the reputation of the yearbook program. If you accept “free-lance” photos from the school community via eShare or some other system, be sure to credit those photographers. Same thing with copy: if you ask for or accept copy written by free-lance writers, make sure they get a byline.

Have fun! Listening to and seeing pictures of the year’s many stories ought to be good fun, and a meaningful experience for your staff or club members. As your coverage improves, so will the quality of the book, your book sales, and the desire of the rest of the students to be a part of something cool.

The 36th annual Summer Workshop gives advisers and staff members a great opportunity to start the 2009-2010 yearbook strongly. Contact Steven or Thomas for more information.

Location

Oak Hall School
8009 SW 14th Ave. Gainesville, FL 32607

Jacksonville– I-10 west to Baldwin, U.S. 301 south to Waldo, S.R. 24 South to 53rd Ave. (First stop light in Gainesville), right on 53rd Ave. to 43rd street., (about 7 miles), left on 43rd street to Newberry Rd., right on Newberry to 75th Street., left on 75th to 14th Ave. (look for the Oak Hall School sign), right on 14th Ave.

From Ocala — North on I-75 to Exit 387 (S.R. 26/Newberry Rd.), left/west on Newberry to 75th St., See above.

From Lake City– South on I-75 to Exit 390, as above.

Times

Monday’s registration and Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s sessions will begin promptly at 8:00 am. Dismissal Monday and Tuesday will be at 4:45; dismissal Wednesday will be at 12:30. Lunch Monday and Tuesday will be at 12:00 pm. Wednesday’s dismissal is early, so lunch is not provided.

Check In

Check-in begins at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning. Please be sure to arrive promptly so that we can complete check-in on time. Our first session for Monday will start at 9:00 am.

Attendance

Students are to attend scheduled classes unless they are with their adviser. Some schools choose to take some time to work together, which is fine as long as the adviser is in attendance.

What to bring

•Trip permission slips for each student. Simply use your school’s form or make copies of the YBC form found in the registration material (see previous blog).
•Swim suits for free time pool-side if staying at the Fairfield Inn.
•Layout ideas that you have seen or thought about already.
•Your school calendar to plan deadlines and events for the school year.
•Your yearbook and possibly extra yearbooks to exchange with other schools.
•Money for snacks.
•Advisers should bring specific ideas to exchange for the Adviser only sessions. Suggestions on grading, organization, hints for new advisers, anything that works for you, etc.
•Art and theme ideas to discuss with a Creative Arts designer at the workshop.

Oh, yeah. It’s time to start planning for the summer workshop! No joke, starting early is one of the best ways to manage the upcoming year: focus or re-focus, get training, learn some of the latest design trends, bond as a staff. Three days at Oak Hall School in Gainesville will provide ample opportunities to work on theme, layout, ad sales and book sales.

The goal of making yearbook cool again gets a great boost when staff members attend the workshop, interact with other budding journalists and get loads of training from our team of experts. The workshop runs from July 20 through July 22. Check out the brochure and registration material for details, or contact Steven or Thomas.

peace-love-yearbook-brochure1

workshop-registration-material

Julie Mancini, the adviser for Dunnellon High School, was named the FSPA District 2 Adviser of the Year for 2007-2008.

Mancini completed her 9th year as yearbook adviser and 7th year as newspaper adviser. She has a passion for photography and has developed an interest for all things related to journalism, especially graphic design and technology. In 2007, she was chosen to participate in the Reynolds High School Journalism Institute by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Doing freelance work, she has been published in Budget Travel magazine, the Star Banner and the Riverland News. She is a Club Herff mentor and has been a regular fixture at workshops. Congratulations, Julie!