new yearbook advisers Archives - Faulkner's Fast Five

Interview with a Yearbook Representative

Creating and running a successful yearbook program does require a lot, but it doesn’t have to be a mystery. While this post isn’t designed to promote one specific yearbook publishing company, I am happy to share some expertise from my amazing Jostens representative. With 14 years in the industry, she has seen a thing or two and knows a thing or two about yearbooks. In this interview with a yearbook representative, I am happy to introduce my long-time yearbook rep and friend: Rebecca Kilday. Below she shares peeks into the industry and her job, insightful advice, and practical tips for new and seasoned yearbook advisers.

– Meet Rebecca Kilday –

1. How did you move into this position?

I was the editor of my high school yearbook and had a great relationship with my adviser. She, in turn, had a great relationship with our school’s Jostens representative. He went to her to ask if there was a former student of hers she could recommend to help him run his territory. She recommended me. I worked for him for 4 years helping him run his territory, then I got the opportunity to run my own territory 10 years ago.

2. Describe what a consultant/representative does.

A representative has many responsibilities—some visible to the customer, and many not visible. First and foremost, we are charged with helping manage the entire yearbook process from beginning to end each year for our customers. This includes training on technology, setting up marketing strategies, providing creative and educational resources (artist visits, journalism curriculum, etc), and clearly communicating and managing the school’s budget. Then, if that all goes well—we are in charge of making sure the school’s books are delivered on time!

The other major prong of a representative’s job is sales. We are charged with meeting with administrators and advisers to convince them to switch from their current companies to work with us. This is a much more competitive process than most people realize. It is common for particular schools to take years to make a change.

3. What is the hardest part of your job? What is the best part of your job?

The hardest part of my job is being responsible for things I can’t control. For example, I’m responsible to my customers to make sure they get their books on time, but I can’t physically make them meet their deadlines! That’s just one of many factors I can’t control, but am held responsible for.

It’s hard to choose just one best part of my job, but I’ll boil it down to the beginning and the end. I love the creative process of the beginning of the year. I love the planning. I love the dreaming. I love when everything is possible, and nothing has gone wrong yet! Then, I love delivery. I love seeing students faces when they see the book they have been working on all year for the first time. It never gets old, and I never take it for granted.

4. What advice would you give a new yearbook adviser?

Be patient with yourself and with the process. If I were to sit down with every new adviser and tell them EXACTLY what the year would bring—no one would ever stick around! But with the resources and support that are available, anyone can have a successful first year. It’s just about being patient, letting your students do the work, and trusting the process.

5. What encouragement could you give to a yearbook adviser that is dealing with a difficult staff, failing program, lack of support from the administration, etc.?

This is a tough one because it’s the question I can relate to the least. I never understand why administration doesn’t support a yearbook program. The yearbook is the most visible public relations piece your school produces! I also have never been a teacher, so I don’t know what it’s like to work with a difficult staff. I will say that my advice would be to run your yearbook staff like you run your other classroom subjects. You wouldn’t tolerate late work or poor behavior in your English class, so don’t tolerate it with your yearbook staff. A “failing” program implies some financial issues. Work with your representative to come up with some strategies to improve ad sales, books sales, whatever you need to do. It’s your representative’s JOB to make sure your program is solvent.

6. If a staff is struggling with meeting deadlines, what do you suggest they do to get things on track?

Deadline performance is tough across the board. When a school falls behind, I like to make small goals for them that they can achieve every week—maybe even at the end of class every day, to get back on track. I identify “priority” pages for them. These are pages that will complete signatures, or they are pages where they aren’t waiting on any additional content (for example, a “first day of school” spread should be finished within 2 weeks of the first day of school). If you can focus on completing the pages where you already have your information, you’ll be able to pop yourself back on track pretty quickly.

7. What is the most successful strategy you’ve seen a school do that worked really well for selling books?

I haven’t seen a “silver bullet” for selling books, but the schools who have the most success do several things:

-They offer their books for sale online. Post that website EVERYWHERE.

-They send a mailer directly to the students’ homes at least twice during the school year.

-They have active social media accounts where they are promoting not only the sale of the book, but the creation process.

-They set aside a week or two in the school year to accept check/cash payments at school. They promote the heck out of those weeks.

Remember that parents are usually the ones who are buying the yearbook, not the students. Reaching beyond the building to promote your book is what will drive your sales to the next level.

8. Yearbooks are all about tradition. What traditions are worth keeping, and what would you like to see changed and why?

I love the tradition of a yearbook presentation or reveal to the student body. It is such a celebration for the book, but it is also important recognition for the students who worked so hard to put it together. I love signing parties, yearbook pep rallies, whatever is the tradition to herald in the delivery of the yearbook, I love it.

I would like to see the idea of everything about the book being secret go away. We depend so much on students outside of the yearbook staff to contribute content to our books (quotes, stats, pictures from Instagram) that I think they deserve to feel like they are also included in the creation process. Keeping your cover a secret from those students seems obsolete to me these days.

9. How have you seen yearbooks change over the years, and how do you see them changing in the future?

Yearbooks are so much more complex than they used to be. We’re encouraging 3 times coverage at MINIMUM. We ask students to tell the story beyond the obvious, we encourage them to mimic designs from professional publications and website, we expect them to write journalistically—it’s a LOT! My old high school yearbooks look so juvenile compared to what schools produce now.

I think we are continuing to see yearbooks strive for relevancy. I think companies are going to continue to innovate with new ways to include the student body in the creation process. It’s interesting because I’ve been around long enough to see the panic over thinking yearbooks were going to be gone within a decade because of the advent of social media. What we learned instead is that students and parents see the value in a tangible keepsake—not a fleeting app. While I do see an age of innovation connected with the yearbook, I also see a deeper connection with our printed product.

10. What else would you like yearbook advisers and their staffs to know?

We feel about our yearbook staffs the way you feel about your students. The schools I work with are MY schools. I love them, I support them, I am PROUD to be associated with them. Your representatives worry about your program, they fight for your program (believe me), and they are so proud to be a part of your program. Never underestimate how much your rep cares about your yearbook.

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If you are looking for more information about starting a yearbook program or strengthening your yearbook program, take a look at these related blog posts.

5 Ideas for Back-to-School Yearbook Class

Love this content? Join a group! There are already tons of ideas, freebies, and fabulous teachers in my new groups, and joining is simple. Just click over to the following links, answer a few questions, and voila! Thanks again for following along my classroom stories and small-business journey. I really do hope you to see you over in my new “backyards” where we can chat and share all things English and Yearbook.

Written by: Julie Faulkner, 2020

Yearbook Distribution Day Tips and Best Practices

Yearbook distribution day is both exciting and worrisome for a yearbook adviser. There are so many things that can go wrong, but they don’t have to! I don’t have it all figured out, but over the years I have developed some methods and strategies to help make the day a success. I’m sharing those Yearbook Distribution Day Tips and Best Practices here!

Pre Planning

It just takes a little bit of work up front to make things go smoothly on yearbook distribution day.

Halt sales – We sell online and at school, and what’s sold at school we enter into our publisher’s website to make keeping track easier. A few days before distribution I stop online sales and in school sales, so I can get my lists finalized and don’t oversell. *It’s also important to note that if you continue in-school sales even weeks prior to the event, that you need to only collect cash in case checks are written without sufficient funds.
Checking sales reports – The first thing I do is match my collection logs and receipts with what’s been entered online. I make sure everything has been entered, and that nothing has been entered twice.
Notifying students – Once I have a master list of books sold with student names, I typically post those in the hallway for students to check. It really helps reduce anxiety on distribution day for students who think they bought a book but didn’t. It is also another way of double checking myself for mistakes. During the school closure event of 2020, I collected all the emails of students and sent emails to buyers and non buyers. That worked really well, and I will send emails going forward as well.
Checking books – Once the books arrive, I take a couple of days and have staffers go through every box and every page. We wear gloves and start flipping. In the past, we’ve had “oops” books or damaged books, so it’s worth taking the time to prevent issuing damaged books before students sign them, etc.
Printing checklists – Every student who picks up a book must sign, so I print their names in a large font with a place for them to sign on charts. Alphabetically by last name usually works best.
Signage – We have personalized and non-personalized books, so we make large signs for each section (we reused them every year). We also divide those areas up into even smaller groups by last name, so print signs on colored paper for the letter groups.

Set Up (On the Day of)

On yearbook distribution day, you’ll need a large enough area to set up hundreds of books for hundreds of students to pick up! Plus, you’ll want the area to look neat and organized.

Separate personalized and non-personalized books.
Tape your checklists down to your tables and provide pens. Be sure to take those up at the end to keep as a record.
We set up outside our gym in the lobby, so there is plenty of room to move around.
I station staffers behind each checklist, and then we have runners and box managers.
Leave the books in the boxes. It makes it harder for people passing by to grab one.

Handing Out Books

You’ll want all hands on deck for handing out the books! We are typically handing out books at the end of the day, and students get an hour or so to sign at school. Therefore, we have to move quickly, but accurately.

We call students in waves – seniors first, then on down the line.
Students form a line according to their last name, and staffer serve one student at a time.
Students must sign for their book, and staffers must make sure they identify the student before handing them a book.
We never let the students reach into the boxes to get their book.
Never give a book to anyone other than the student whose name is on the list.
Never give a book out early- even just an hour early. There’s always tomorrow to pick up the book.
When you are finished handing out books, take just a minute and label with sticky notes any uncollected books. This helps me identify how many books I have left to sell, and it makes grabbing books for students the following day a lot faster.
Be sure to collect your sign out sheets. You’ll need them for pick ups in the following days.
Always wait to sell extra books after distribution has ended. Remember to add those purchases to your checklists and have students sign.
Any issues or questions are directed to me. I don’t want my staffers dealing with problems; this is their day to shine. If ANYTHING comes up (name not on the list, can’t find my name, can I get someone else’s book, I don’t like this pictures, my name is spelled wrong, etc.), I tell them to send the student to me.

Event Special Touches

Since we host a huge yearbook distribution day party during school hours, I get to do a few fun extras.

Speech – I always ask a senior staffer to write a short speech that explains the book’s theme. I also remind students during this time to thank the staff and put their names in their books first thing!
Awards – If the staff earned any awards during the year, or for the past year’s book, I love to have our yearbook company rep come and present that.
Honor the seniors – Distribution is a fun, little way to kick off “senior season” for our students. Usually, yearbook distribution immediately follows state testing, so it’s perfect timing to being honoring the seniors. We hold distribution in the gym, and when students come in, they all sit in the middle section. After we’ve done announcements, we do a senior walk. Seniors line up on one side of the gym, we start the graduation song, and they march around making a loop and out the opposite side’s door (which goes to the lobby where my staffers are waiting). The teachers usually line up at the exit door to form a sort of tunnel for high fives. (Yes, my seniors get to do the senior walk. The underclassmen staffers run to the stations after announcements. Then the senior staffers join to distribute.) During the school closure of 2020, we honored our seniors on porch pick up day by lining the lawn with signs including their pictures and names. I also collected senior signatures and made a “faux” end sheet for them since they didn’t get to sign each other’s books.
Other – Play music. Give away pens for signing. Sell smoothies or have a shaved ice truck come. Invite ALL students!

Thank Your Staff

It doesn’t have to be much, but remember these folks did a ton of work to get to this point, and they give up a bit of their signing time to distribute and clean up (I do try to bring in a few teachers to help with clean up, so I can let the staffers go as soon as possible to the party). I usually have small gift for them before book pick up, and we have a little party with food/snacks. Take some fun group pictures of them, too, as a keepsake.

You and your staff have worked very hard to create a beautiful time capsule for your student body. So, however you decide to make your distribution day special, remember to have fun!

Check out my yearbook curriculum for ready-to-go distribution tools. Also be sure to click the link to join my Yearbook Advisers Facebook Group for a live webinar with lots of great discussion on this topic as well.

Yearbook Curriculum BUNDLE+ for Student Journalism Publications

Written by: Julie Faulkner

Tips for New Yearbook Advisers

When I was asked/told I would be the yearbook adviser over ten years ago, I said what any good new hire would say: “Sure!” I had never been on the yearbook or newspaper staff before, and my degree wasn’t in journalism. I stepped into a situation where the previous adviser had left on bad terms, so the staffers hated me – that is an understatement. So, through much blood, sweet, and tears, I eventually learned everything the hard way and on my own – again, another understatement. Now, I am still learning, but along the way, I learned to love it. I have a supportive administration, faculty and community, good vibes from our student body, great publishing company, and an amazing yearbook rep. Hopefully, with that bit of good vibes going, I can share with you the things that have worked for me. So here we have the first five things that you need to do NOW if you are just starting out.

Deadlines and Ladder– Yearbook class is almost like a company. It operates with one foot in the school world and one foot in the business world. The first thing you need to do is sit down with your yearbook rep or company and find out when your deadlines are. Once I have those deadlines, I handle them a couple of ways. First, I make the ladder and set every page that needs to be created. Second, I NEVER give my students the drop-dead deadline. In fact, they get a couple of deadlines from me: a preliminary and a final. Often, there is one in between that one, too. I chunk my pages based on content and what I know we can get done first. For example, my business ads are always submitted on the first deadline, student portraits usually go next, and so on. Also, I give students at least two deadlines to work on a time – the closest one and the next one. In fact, my students are basically assigned every page/topic they will be completing for the year the first or second week of school! That way there are no surprises, and we can make our deadlines!

Budget – Again, this is something you will need to sit down and talk to your company rep about the first week of school or before. Once you know what the overall bill will be, you can work backwards to begin collecting money. We sell business advertisements and senior tribute advertisements to help lower the cost of the book for our students. I teach in a very rural school district, and I wanted as many students to have the opportunity to purchase a book as possible, so the ad sales help. It’s important to know the end goal up front, so you don’t overspend on book design extras, etc. My full yearbook curriculum has an entire teaching pack included for business sales, etc.

Equipment Organization and Photography – Whether you have a small staff or a large staff with a lot of equipment or a little, there has to be a system to keep up with everything so it’s all protected. My staff has several cameras, lens, etc. and each staff has a laptop as well. Before they can even use the equipment, they must sign a release form. My principal approved my form, and I hand it out on the first day. Next, I have system for check outs. Anything checked out must be signed out and signed back in. For the computers and other materials, each student has a bucket and a cubby. Last, one of the most important things you can do to protect images and keep them organized is to require each student to have his/her own memory card. In the past, I’ve supplied those cards and they get lost, stolen, broken, and/or erased. Once I started requiring staffers to have their own cards, those problems were almost nonexistent.

Teamwork and School Spirit – The dynamic of yearbook staff can be really tough for a couple of reasons: large personalities and the pressure of getting things done. I start on the first day building the concept of teamwork and collaboration. We do team-building activities, and we talk about what each person has to offer. We also take a look at our own struggles, so that we know everybody has room to grow and we can learn from each other. The other component of keeping a positive attitude going is making sure the student body feels connected and supported by us. Each of my staffer gets a list of students (I divide the entire student body up) that he/she keeps track of all year. They get to know the people on their list through projects I assign, and they make sure those people are being covered in an authentic way. I have several of these projects in my store, or you can let your students brainstorm some! Also, I always have a small gift for my staffers on the first day to let them know how much I appreciate them! Our theme this year is related to the idea of authenticity – so I went with Coke’s real thing slogan! Plus, my staffers know how much I love my real, RED coke!

Grading – If your yearbook class is for credit, grading can be a sticky issue, so it must be consistent and formulated. My staffers get grades several ways: selling ads, selling my books, meeting deadlines, projects, and pages. I use rubrics to grade their pages with. Projects include photo challenges, interview challenges, presentations, etc. They also do grammar worksheets and sometimes we read info texts on hot topics and answer questions. All of these items can be found in my full yearbook curriculum that is ready to go for you.

In all, I realize there is a lot of turnover in the yearbook adviser world, and rightfully so. It’s not an easy job for many reasons: deadline stress, money worries, drama from staffers, un-supportive admin and/or faculty, nosy or apathetic community members, subpar publishing companies, and the list goes on and on. So, if you are a new or newish yearbook adviser, I hope I can share something from my struggles along the way that can help you. If you have a little bit of extra time, stop over by my FB page and watch my webinar on “Getting Started as a Yearbook Adviser.”

So…..my #1 tip for new yearbook advisers? Eat the elephant one bite at a time. You can’t change the world — or a yearbook program — in a day! Be sure to stop over to my other post: Kicking Off Back-to-School in Yearbook Class for some other fun tips!