How to Create a School Yearbook Committee
Every year students look forward to purchasing yearbooks and passing them around to their classmates for signatures and salutations. Putting together a yearbook can be a daunting challenge, especially at a large school with many students, staff members and activities to record. To take on this challenge, it is best to create a committee to handle all the tasks involved in publishing a successful school yearbook. At the elementary school level, the committee will usually be made up of school staff, while at the middle and high school levels, students enrolled in newspaper or yearbook classes will usually be tasked with the different responsibilities.
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Instructions
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Teacher- or Parent-Run Yearbook Committees
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Ask for volunteers to make up your committee, preferably at least three to four teachers from different grade levels. At some schools, parents are asked to work on the yearbook. It is helpful if at least one of the teachers has a background in art or publishing and can look at the yearbook components with a critical eye toward its design and help create attractive layouts.
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Choose a yearbook publisher, if you do not already have one. Get bids and information from different publishers in your area and meet with their representatives to determine which one will best meet your school's needs.
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Choose a committee member to be the main contact with the yearbook publisher. This person will be the one who ensures that all deadlines to submit photographs and other material are met.
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Designate a committee member to oversee the candid photographs that are taken for the yearbook. While a large portion of a school yearbook will be made up of class and individual photographs, candid shots of students and staff members add an intimate touch to the publication. This committee member will either take pictures or have someone take pictures at assemblies and other school events. This person will also have to arrange for clubs and the winners of spelling and other contests to be photographed.
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Select a committee member or two to decide how much the yearbook will cost, when it will go on sale, when sales will end and if extra copies will be bought to sell to those students who do not preorder. Schools will often have to eat the cost of unsold yearbooks, so buying too many extra copies can be an expensive mistake.
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Task at least two committee members to proofread and look over each photograph and page. The committee members should verify with classroom teachers that each student in their classes is represented and that no child has been accidentally left out of the yearbook because they were new or sick on the day pictures were taken. Committee members need to look at photographs carefully to ensure that they don't contain any inappropriate gestures or images.
Student-Run Yearbook Committees
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Speak with the students about different responsibilities that yearbook committee members can perform and ask for volunteers to take on the positions. You can also have students vote on members or have the faculty adviser select members to fulfill the open positions.
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Choose a student to head the committee and be the liaison between it and the yearbook faculty adviser and school administration and the yearbook committee. This person should also work with the yearbook faculty adviser to ensure that photographs and material are submitted in time to meet publishing deadlines.
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Choose one or more students to verify with school administration that all pupils have a picture in the yearbook. You may want to have one committee member per grade level who can go over a grade-level list of names and match them against the pictures. These committee members should also verify the spelling of names and that pictures and names belong together.
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Select committee members who will design and layout the pages and the cover of the yearbook.
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Choose committee members to oversee the sections on sports teams and clubs. Each committee member will work to ensure that all teams and clubs are photographed and identified correctly.
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Task a committee member to take or arrange to have candid photographs taken at assemblies, special events -- such as homecoming -- and of daily life around the school.
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Ask the yearbook staff if they want to include quotes or articles from students about their school experiences and, if so, find committee members who will gather or write those quotes and stories to be used in the yearbook.
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Choose two or more committee members who will work with the yearbook faculty adviser to proof the yearbook for typos and to check photographs for inappropriate images.
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