Flower Mound High School’s yearbook editors Keerthana Ramesbabu, Sophie Slaughter, Elizabeth Roeling, Alison Cushman, Isabel Quevedo and Jennifer Nichols.
From time to time we feature guest columns from Balfour advisers. In this guest post from the Flower Mound High School adviser Marie Jones who shares how she chooses her editorial team. This post originally ran in the Fall 2018 issue of Balfour’s magazine Elements.
Editors are chosen based on their years of experience, job preferences and responsibility levels.
In the past, the selection of an editor in chief was based on who was able and willing to put in the hours to take charge.
One year we had an editor in chief who was a six-year staff member; she joined yearbook in middle school and continued through her senior year.
Except for the business matters, she knew everything I knew (and more about some aspects) and took a lot off my plate. It was awesome! With 15 students on staff, producing 480 pages, she was able to manage production like a 40-year-old business owner. She was the exception, not the rule.
In recent years, potential editors in chief lacked leadership experience, but had expertise in specific areas. Because of this, we moved to an editorial board structure with three to five editors: one or two design and copy editors and a photo editor. The board makes decisions and provides direction to the staff as a cooperative team. If there is a deadlock on a vote, I am the tie-breaker. In 2017, the design editor chose to also be photo editor, so there were only two editors.
This year we have a larger staff than in the past. We have grown from 15 members to 27, so we have six editors to oversee more staffers: two design and copy editors, one reporter/social media editor and one photo editor. Together they oversee PWR (Power) Teams with five students on a team: photographers, writers and reporters on each team. Each PWR team is led by an editorial board member who checks design and style consistency for his or her team. In addition to their work with their PWR team, the editorial board members create theme pages: cover, endsheets, opening, dividers and closing.
The PWR teams maintain the advantages of the smaller staff even though we have grown into a larger organization and the editorial board plays to editors’ strengths.
