BEING A YEARBOOK ADVISER IS A UNIQUE CHALLENGE
There are very few full-school year group projects. Whether you advise a yearbook class or a club, the challenges presented to a yearbook staff are unique… and develop skills uniquely needed in the professional work world.
Throughout the process of yearbook theme conception through final deadline, students are participating in an experience that closely resembles the work world. They are conceptualizing and creating a product, which they will market and sell. Along the way, they need to communicate and collaborate to meet their goals. They must have quality standards, because people purchase their work. They must meet deadlines because yearbooks need to arrive in a specific timeframe. It’s not easy. But it’s also very rewarding.
This unique experience requires a different type of interaction with students. Whereas a lack of performance in most classes only impacts the individual, a lack of performance in yearbook impacts many: the adviser, the other students on the staff, and the consumer who is purchasing a yearbook. It is important that staffers are not only willing to work, but to do good work.
So, how do we get staffers to work? There are basically three options:
- Stand back and watch. This method only produces results if you happen to be gifted with an innately driven group – an extraordinarily rare situation in any area of life.
- Cajole and coerce. This is often the default, as we feel that students should be innately driven. (Wouldn’t life be easy if they were?) This method leans heavily on begging, pleading and sometimes yelling.
- Cultivate a thriving environment. This strategy requires a little creativity and playfulness, along with a willingness to empower students, but doing so creates an environment in which people want to show up and work hard.
Realistically, “standing back and watching” is not a realistic expectation. “Cajoling” and “cultivating” both take effort. The question is – what type of work do you want to do?
Jostens Renaissance is Here to Help
Jostens Renaissance is focused on cultivating a thriving environment: getting results through joyful interactions and reinforcement of the goal.
You want to meet deadlines with less stress? Renaissance for Yearbook can help.
You want to make sure every student in your school feels seen, heard and valued through the yearbook? Renaissance for Yearbook can help.
You want to reduce budgetary pressures by selling more books? Renaissance for Yearbook can help.
You want to recruit and retain yearbook staffers? Renaissance for Yearbook can help.
USING RENAISSANCE FOR YEARBOOK
Renaissance for Yearbook is built around The Renaissance Results Formula™.
A yearbook staff using Jostens Renaissance structures their recognition, rewards and reinforcements to make achieving their goals fun. The Results Formula helps yearbook programs identify the values they RESPECT and then RECOGNIZE and REWARD actions they want to see from their staffers. They REINFORCE their values through traditions and words, while looking for ways to create strong RELATIONSHIPS. All of this drives RESULTS.
Here’s how it works…
Clearly define a primary goal that the yearbook staff will aim for.
Identify, and show respect to, values and actions that will help you achieve your goal.
Encourage specific behaviors with strategies that focus on your goal and amplify a sense of fun.
Build communication and trust among the staff with regular activities that create relationships.
START YOUR JOURNEY HERE
We recommend that yearbook advisers and staffers begin by collaborating to make a plan. A Renaissance for Yearbook plan is much more powerful if it is rooted in concepts from both students and adults. Advisers, this means that you should not feel responsible for making all aspects of the plan happen. Your job is to facilitate.
Download and complete the planner below. On it, you will…
- Identify the Result you want to attain (your goal).
- Think critically about the actions and values that staffers need to pay Respect to. When done repeatedly, they will yield your desired results.
- Select 1-3 ideas that you will implement for each R: Recognition, Reward, Reinforcement and Relationship-building. We offer tons of ideas on JostensRenaissance.com. Just click below to view them.
Once you feel like you’ve got a solid plan, take action! Create a calendar to keep yourselves on track and make sure you have any supplies you need. Repetition and consistency will be key, so don’t get frustrated if you don’t feel momentum immediately.
RESPECT
Renaissance yearbook programs show respect for what they regard as important. And while every program can have their own twist or area of focus, Renaissance staffs in general tend to show respect for hard work, responsibility, attention to detail, kindness and generosity.
RECOGNIZE
Renaissance creates an energized culture of recognition that runs broad and deep. It’s a culture that is purposeful in identifying achievements of all contributors and thoughtful in recognizing them. A Renaissance culture is focused on catching students doing something awesome, whether that is in small gestures or grand actions.
REWARD
Renaissance yearbook programs reward students for actions and achievements that align with their goals. There are many examples of Renaissance rewards — each of them serves to show appreciation to effort, to reinforce the behaviors that are valued, and to provide motivation for more contributions. By implementing a system of rewards, staffs can illustrate the benefits of hard work and encourage more of it.
REINFORCE
If your goals are important (and they are!), that message should be reinforced all year long. Visual reminders and traditions work in combination with a culture of respect and recognition put your values front and center. Renaissance staffs use items like posters as reminders, and create micro-traditions like staff shout-outs at the beginning of each meeting to create a sense of camaraderie.
RELATIONSHIPS
Relationships are the foundation for all the work that takes place on a yearbook staff. Relationships can be started and strengthened in small ways, with intentional conversations and easy meet-and-greet activities, but relationships need to be systematically cultivated throughout the entirety of yearbook production and delivery.
WANT TO USE JOSTENS RENAISSANCE?
If you are a Jostens customer, use code YRBK2024 to set up a new account on JostensRenaissance.com here. We recommend that you establish your account using the same login and password you use for YearbookAvenue access.
If you don’t currently partner with Jostens for yearbooks or graduation regalia or other celebratory products, you can learn more here.