It’s the beginning of September and a new semester has just begun. You know what that means. It’s time to start the yearbook planning process! There’s just one problem. Where should you begin? Before you start hyperventilating and pulling out your hair, see these steps that are sure to take the stress off your yearbook planning.
Set the Mission/Goal
Just like any other form of planning, your yearbook planning must start with a goal. One goal might be to recall all the special moments created and bonds that have been built. Another goal might be to document the legacy of the school, students, and alumni. Maybe the goal is to equip students with valuable skills that will benefit them in their future studies or careers. The goal might even be a combination of all the above. No matter what the goal is, it is important to have one which will guide the process of yearbook planning. Consult with students, staff and administrators to ensure that there is unity among all the central participants and ensure that they are motivation to make the yearbook a success. Once the overall mission is set, you will need to think of the necessary activities that will help accomplish the main objective.
Creating the Team
Now that you have a goal set and you have a relative idea on how to achieve it, it is time to set up a yearbook committee. You will want to place announcements and advertisements to attract attention and build enthusiasm for the available roles. It is important to highlight the benefits that the students and staff will receive once they join. No matter what the goal is, every yearbook will need a:
- Production Manager/Editor and Chief – Manages the direction of the yearbook and provides guidance
- Assistant Editor – Manages the yearbook content and leads the team
- Finance Manager – In charge of budget development, fundraising and revenue collection
- Journalists/Writers – In charge of event coverage, interviews, stories, and copy
- Copy Editor – Checks for grammatical errors and verifies facts
- Designers – Prepares the layouts, yearbook spreads and edits photos
- Marketers – Manages yearbook promotion and sales, and works with advertisers
- Publisher – In charge of print and distribution
Training
You’ve gathered a team of charismatic, self-driven, and independent personnel. All that’s missing are the skills they need to be confident in the work they produce. After all, it’s unlikely that the students recruited will have all the business, marketing, and design knowledge they need to feel self-sufficient. In order to ensure that the team is strong and confident, you will need to provide some training sessions and tutorials (hyperlink).
Create a Yearbook Ladder
Next, you will want to create a yearbook ladder. The yearbook ladder (hyperlink) is an effective tool that helps organize the pagination and the content sequencing. It will also act as a checklist to track the overall progress. See a few examples templates below:
Set a Production Schedule
You’ve now reached the most essential part of the yearbook planning process, setting the schedule. The last thing you want is to be trying to collect and organize your yearbook last-minute. There are a few components you would like to make sure are organized so that the work can flow:
- 1) Develop the budget
- 2) Mark out must attend events
- 3) Set important deadlines for
- photo submissions
- finalized design and lay-out
- editorial submissions
- publishing
- end of sales
- 4) Set the promotional timeline
- 5) Schedule ongoing training sessions
Spreadsheets (hyperlink) are most commonly used to manage these components. See our list of available spreadsheets that will simplify this process.
