A meaningful book for all students. A book in every student s hands. Effective project management

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1 National Yearbook Program of Excellence DECEMBER 2012 NATIONAL YEARBOOK PROGRAM OF EXCELLENCE Your staff has accomplished a lot since the beginning of the school year. Now is a great time to see how you are tracking toward the National Yearbook Program of Excellence designation. Check out the Excellence tab on the home page of Yearbook Avenue to view your progress in each of the three categories. As you continue to work toward your goals, your Jostens team is here to help and cheer you on, every step of the way. We understand that a great yearbook program doesn t just happen, and we are dedicated to helping you continually strengthen yours by providing the tools and personal guidance to help you succeed. When that happens, we will have the honor of recognizing you and your staff as a National Yearbook Program of Excellence. Review the Excellence criteria. Page 7 A meaningful book for all students Meeting your coverage goals requires focus and creativity. Find out what one winning staff did to shine the spotlight on students throughout the school. Pages 2 3 A book in every student s hands Now is the time to let students and parents know that time is running out to reserve their copy of the yearbook. We ve got ideas that will get the word out. Plan your winter campaign now! Page 4-5 Effective project management Meeting page deadlines can be a challenge. One Excellence award winning staff shares their secrets for getting the job done. Page 6 FEB FALL delivery schools Submit your cover and endsheets to the printing plant by Feb

2 National Yearbook Program of Excellence A MEANINGFUL BOOK Use the Coverage Report on Yearbook Avenue to track who is in the book and who s not. Not familiar with how it works? Check out the Coverage Report video in the Page Creation section of the Digital Classroom video library. If you are using InDesign to create your pages, use the Coverage Report on the YearTech toolbar to get this information. surveys Make your yearbook more inclusive All About Me feature expands student coverage Probably the statistic that I am most proud of from last year s book was that we were able to get 93 percent of our student body into the book at least three times. This is the accomplishment that means the most to me because it proves that this is a memory book about and for all of the students and not just a certain clique or group of students. I want the yearbook to be a keepsake that everyone will want and treasure. I believe the 93 percent proves this sentiment to be true, said Jamie Manhart, yearbook adviser at Silver Lake High School [KS]. An inclusive yearbook features as many students as possible and tells stories that are relevant and interesting to the reader. The Silver Lake staff, a 2012 National Yearbook Program of Excellence winner, came up with a creative design concept they were able to carry throughout the book to add interest and personality to their student coverage. We chose the All About Me concept to not only include students who may not be in a lot of activities, clubs or sports, but to allow readers to get to know those students better. We had them write their answers and then we scanned in their paper to add a more personal flair and to jazz up the aesthetic look of the page, Manhart said. 2

3 National Yearbook Program of Excellence A MEANINGFUL BOOK quotes Make your yearbook more inclusive The staff also used student quotes and personality profiles throughout the book for additional coverage. The Jostens Coverage Report on Yearbook Avenue helped them stay on track with their goals. Honestly, as the book developed, we monitored the coverage report daily. If someone started to be in the yearbook a lot, we pulled them from the All About Me section and chose someone else. It was all about the coverage report! Manhart said. A credit to all their creativity and hard work, the Sliver Lake High School yearbook staff was among the firstyear winners of the National Yearbook Program of Excellence award. 3

4 National Yearbook Program of Excellence A BOOK in every Student s hands Looking for fresh new ideas to promote your book? Take a look at the Promoting and Selling the Yearbook video in the Digital Classroom. You ll find it in the Sales and Promotion section of the video library. Yearbook sales and promotion Winter campaign checklist Use the Winter campaign to create excitement and anticipation. Show previews of the book and let students know they are in it. Get them involved by asking them to submit photos using ReplayIt. This is also the time to let students and parents know that time is running out. This is their last chance to reserve their copy of the yearbook. Pre-sale planning activities Set up selling locations and times for in-school sales. Make sure you have plenty of order forms and/receipt pads. Run the Coverage Report in Yearbook Avenue. Highlight students who are in the book, but have not yet purchased. Check out all the great resources available in the Sell It section of the Digital Classroom on Yearbook Avenue to help you promote and sell the book. Create buzz in school Display Yearbook Kit posters or create your own. Display Share the Book poster and attach printouts of yearbook pages. Display window clings on windows and doors. Use the new Share feature on Yearbook Avenue to share select pages on Facebook or through . Create daily announcements make them fun to generate interest, but be sure to let students know how to buy. Use locker stuffers to remind students to buy. Create You re in the Book cards and send to non-buyers that appear on the coverage report. Put an ad in the school newspaper. Additional ideas Create a yearbook Facebook page to share news about the book. Ask each staff member to send friend requests to 25 students. Create a staff yearbook commercial and post it on YouTube. Put the link on your yearbook Facebook page. Ask each staff member to text 20 friends reminding them to buy a book. Use sidewalk chalk around the school to promote the sale. 4

5 National Yearbook Program of Excellence A BOOK in every Student s hands Display the promotional materials included in your Yearbook Kit. Poster Window clings Banner Yearbook sales and promotion Create buzz at home Send a message home to parents by mailing a postcard or adding a letter or postcard to a parent mailing being sent from the school. Send parents an reminder using one of the templates available on Yearbook Avenue. Go to the Digital Classroom/Sell It/ Yearbook to get started. It is quick and easy! Put a banner ad on the school website for parents to see. You ll find several banner designs and complete instructions on Yearbook Avenue in the Sell It section of the Digital Classroom. Communicate the sale using the school s phone messaging or system. Put a Yearbooks on Sale message on the school marquee. Distribute flyers to parents at school events (programs, sporting events, parent meetings, etc.). Place yard signs on front of the school promoting the sale. Wrap up Enter sales into Yearbook Avenue. Update Sales Goal poster. Celebrate your success! 5

6 National Yearbook Program of Excellence Effective Project Management 6 When it comes to tracking deadline performance, book sales or ad campaigns, look no further than your Yearbook Kit to find posters that keep your goals and progress visible to the entire staff. Wall ladder Book Sales tracking poster Ad Sales tracking poster Managing all of the details of a large book was challenging, but the Cabot High School staff succeeded and was awarded with the National Yearbook Program of Excellence designation. The keys to deadline performance Careful planning and organization Nov. 26 was an important day for the Cabot High School yearbook staff. That was when their first deadline of 80 pages was due at the plant. The staff not only met their deadline more than a week early, but exceeded it by submitting another 41 pages toward their second deadline. Adviser Michelle Young said the key to her staff s success is carefully planning the pages that can be completed for each deadline. Deadline planning is a best practice shared by many staffs. Portrait pages, ad pages and pages featuring events that take place early in the school year are often targeted for first and second deadlines. The first pages we submit are our Senior Spotlight pages. This year we had a record number purchased for the yearbook, and we gave ourselves and our customers an early September deadline which allowed us to get the pages put together in plenty of time to reach our Jostens deadline, Young said. She credits her highly motivated staff and helpful Jostens representative, Natasha Durham, with keeping the yearbook on track. Cabot High School was a 2012 winner of the Jostens National Yearbook Program of Excellence by meeting the criteria for coverage, sales and deadline performance. They are working to claim the title for a second year this spring. Young said the school has a strong yearbook tradition and her staff is always looking for ways to make the book even more meaningful to students. Some of this year s goals include covering more events and building awareness of ReplayIt in order to get more student involvement. The Cabot staff is led by five student editors who help Young keep the entire staff organized while creating their 424 page book. For this hardworking staff, tracking page progress, deadlines, book and ad sales are all in a day s work. The Cabot staff works together to make sure their page deadlines are met.

7 National Yearbook Program of Excellence Criteria The criteria for the National Yearbook Program of Excellence are broken down into three categories. We want to help you create an inclusive book, generate school community engagement and manage your program. The National Yearbook Program of Excellence designation is an honor that recognizes yearbook programs for achieving the criteria in each of the three categories. A Meaningful Book for All Students A book that is meaningful to all students is a book that features a vast majority of the students. The yearbook is the story of the year and each student is part of that story. The more a student is included in the yearbook, the more relevant and meaningful it is. The criteria for achieving this category are: At least 50 percent of your student body is pictured in your yearbook three times or more. You can utilize our Coverage Reports in Yearbook Avenue to easily track how many times each student is pictured in your yearbook. Set your Distribution Event date and location by Dec. 1. Celebrate your hard work and great book with a distribution event! It gives the students a chance to share stories and signatures that make the yearbook an even more meaningful keepsake. You don t need to have all the details planned out by Dec. 1 just the date and location. Then use the distribution tools in your Yearbook Kit (and your Jostens representative) to help you plan the details before the event. A Book in Every Student s Hands You put so much effort, time and care into your school s yearbook. We want to help ensure that as many students as possible get to enjoy the masterpiece you have created. The criteria for achieving this category are: 70 percent of your student body purchases a yearbook OR a 5 percent increase in the percentage of students buying a book this year compared to last year. The status reports on your Yearbook Avenue home page as well as reports found under the Sell menu will help you keep track of your progress. Reach home to parents at least three times with ordering information (how, when, where and why to buy). Use one of the Jostens selling programs (Jostens Direct Solutions or Yearbook Home Direct) to automatically qualify. If you like to handle your own sales campaigns, we can help with the selling tools we ve provided in your Yearbook Kit and on Yearbook Avenue. Effective Project Management Meeting your yearbook deadlines is a very important part of the yearbook creation process and results in your yearbooks delivering on time and exactly as you want them. The criteria for achieving this category are: Have your cover and endsheets submitted by Nov. 1 for spring-delivery schools and Feb. 15 for fall-delivery schools. Work with your Jostens representative and plant consultant to ensure you meet these deadlines and have cover and endsheet designs you love! Meet all of your scheduled page deadlines. Work with your Jostens representative and plant consultant to create a fabulous book and ensure you submit your pages by your established deadlines. 7