In psychological terms, it’s called “chunking.” Divide a 10-digit phone number into three chunks and it is easier to remember. In yearbook production, the same concept is called mini-deadlines. By breaking the big job into smaller, more easily handled steps, staff members will not become overwhelmed.
Staff members have five major deadlines throughout the year. To keep them from last-minute mania, they have mini-deadlines every Friday that involve some part of their pages. If they don’t complete the assignment by the deadline, it is an automatic 70.
My editors have progress sheets that they sign off on every Friday. Once that has been completed, they show me the sheet for their grade. I leave the mini-deadline checks up to the editors, and then the editors and I access the staff’s progress toward meeting major deadlines. It really helps with the grading process on my end.
Our approach to clubs is unique. Every student gets a club or two to cover at the beginning of the year. To assure informed, balanced and fair coverage, students have four months (give or take) to get pictures, facts and quotes about their clubs. When they are done, they save everything to the shared drive. Then the Clubs Editor puts it all together.
The index runs much the same way. The Index Editor will take all the clubs and sports group shots, and rosters (assembled by other staff members) to build the index.
My editors design all the divider pages. Because they are responsible for all the other theme-related pages, having the editors design the dividers helps to maintain consistency and pull the yearbook together as a whole.
As far as feeding my staff, after every deadline we have a themed yearbook food day. The editors and staff actually take care of that themselves, but it gets pretty intense. Crock pots and waffle makers show up and so does half the faculty. (It’s a great way to entice teachers to work with the yearbook staff!)
Excerpt from Elements magazine “How’d You Do That?: Set Mini Deadlines.”