Good Day, everyone
We are a Rec – Year 12 College of >700 students, and still produce a Yearbook. I (Communications Coordinator) work with an external designer, who in turn coordinates the printer. Currently, every student and staff member receives one, as an inclusion of their annual resources fee, but I can see this pivoting to one per family, or print/pay on demand, in the coming years.
The year before I inherited the project in 2021, the Yearbook tipped over 300 pages, and was running 18-24 months behind. I’ve tightened this up to 208-224 pages, depending on how many bespoke events (like a building opening or anniversary year) there are to include.
In 2024, Year Level Coordinators and Learning Area Coordinators were allocated just one meeting block at the end of the year, to compile content, and only a few spent any time beyond this. I have thus spent a good half of Term 1 and the last week or so of this term shadow-sourcing missing content, copy-editing (and consolidating) text, and trying to salvage poorly shot images from events a school camera is not taken to. It will be another week or so before ’24 content gets to the designer. Compared to past timelines, we are “ahead”, but the goal for 2025 is to provide staff with 1 meeting block per *Semester*, and have content packaged up by early Term 1 next year. Whether or not that happens really depends on the quality and quantity of content; specifically, how well teachers follow the instructions pertaining word count, naming conventions, image quality/quantity etc.
Regarding *type* of content, I have been gently steering staff away from teacher-text in favour of students’ own words, and (mostly) photos to show the story. Some staff have embraced this. Other staff… let’s just say… are fierce advocates. In particular, there are some rather passionate politics between Primary and Secondary, and how they each expect their content to be showcased.
Once it is with our designer, the design part of the process takes maybe 5-6 weeks (wherein I may get a call or email every couple of days) before we then get a full printed proof that gets passed around to a few different members of staff for review. Depending on everyone’s calendars, final proofing takes 1-2 weeks.
TL;DR: It’s a little like childbirth. A painful process, but worthwhile once it’s in your hands. LOL
Good luck!
Danielle
dnicolas@stdominics.sa.edu.au