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Can our school afford to start a yearbook program?
Financially risk-free and school programming don't intersect often. When they do, pay attention. Traditionally a yearbook program begins with a deposit, requires minimum orders, and ends with an invoice. That's no fun! Certain schools cannot pay to play. Others can't afford to remain in the (yearbook) game. Would you believe there is another way? (Say yes, and keep reading.)
Does my School Need a Yearbook Program?
Teachers, administrators, and parent groups seek opportunities to enhance the student experience, foster community spirit, and leave a lasting impact. A yearbook program checks all those boxes at once. A yearbook isn’t just a book; it’s a time capsule. It captures the essence of each school year— friendships, achievements, trends, and more. Whether it’s the class photo or the quirky candid shots from the pep rally, the yearbook immortalizes memories that would otherwise fade away.
How to Get Started
Here’s a handy checklist to get your yearbook program off the ground:
- Gather your team: assemble a yearbook committee—teachers, parents, and students who share a passion for preserving memories.
- Find a publishing partner: the right fit here can make all. the. difference. Talk to company representatives, ask for a sample to see the quality, and be sure you understand what you can afford.
- Arrange training for your yearbook team.
- Spread the word: let everyone know about the exciting yearbook project. Generate buzz among students, parents, and staff. Treering has plenty of free marketing tools and ideas. (Even if you don't choose us!)
- Plan Ahead: set deadlines for photo submissions, design, and ordering. Keep everyone in the loop.
- Celebrate the Unveiling: host a yearbook reveal event. Popcorn, excitement, and memories galore!
The Treering Difference
Just thinking yearbook, may be overwhelming. It's one more proverbial ball to juggle. That’s why Treering focuses on making things as easy as possible for everyone involved: yearbook team members, front office staff, teachers, parents, and students.
No Deposits, Contracts, or Minimimus
Schools can afford Treering's financially transparent and risk-free approach because we don't saddle schools with yearbook debt, contracts, guaranteed minimums, or hidden costs. Phew. Removing those huge hurdles at the outset lets you focus on creating a high-quality yearbook highlighting the best moments and events.
Yes to Personalization and Support
Custom pages are a hit with students and families who have the option to include two free personalized pages that appear only in their copy.
Treering schools never pay extra for
- Training and support
- Moving deadlines
- Yearbook themes, clip art, and fonts
- Creating a custom yearbook cover
- Using portraits from any photographer
Additionally, the on-demand printing process means you’ll get lots more coverage of spring events and sports. Treering only prints what you order, so there are no overruns.
A Tradition Worth Starting
Starting a yearbook program establishes a special tradition within your school community. Imagine the excitement during the yearbook reveal, the buzz as students eagerly flip through its glossy pages and the pride of seeing their own faces alongside their peers.
Remember, a yearbook isn’t just a book; it’s a legacy. So, go ahead—start your school’s yearbook journey with Treering. Your families and students will cherish the memories and you’ll be able to showcase all the great things happening in your school community! You’ve got great stories to share and Treering can help.
Treering would like to thank Dara Arouh, a Georgia-based yearbook mom of two, for contributing this blog.
Happy New Year from Treering
Since 2009, you’ve trusted us to capture and print your priceless memories, and we reflect on this honor every holiday season. Thank you for trusting us with this invaluable task. We wish you all the best this holiday season, and we can’t wait to get to work in 2024. Happy holidays!
Some quick 2023 stats:
- School communities donated over 7000 yearbooks
- Through yearbook sales, schools raised over $2 Million
- Families customized nearly 500,000 custom pages
15 Years of Treering: It is our Birthday
Here’s what you can expect in 2024: from January through December, we will celebrate our 15th birthday with goodies for you. You are the reason Treering Yearbooks continues to grow and innovate.
Giveaways Galore in 2024
Since we can't hand out plastic goodie bags with sticky hands and noisemakers to every member of the Treering community, coffee, gift cards, custom pages, and other freebies will have to do.
Spoiler alert: Treering’s annual design contests are not going anywhere.
“Treering in the Wild”
Last year, at the PTO Today conference in Chicago, IL, an editor said she loved seeing “Treering in the wild,” and it stuck with us. In 2024, we’re leaving our home offices and Google Meets for more IRL conversations and celebrations.
New Ways to Capture and Share Memories
Personalized memories are here to stay. How families and yearbook coordinators collect and share them once again will get a shake-up at our hands.
2024 Growth Opportunities
From new Yearbook Club webinars for yearbook coordinators and advisers to multi-day virtual events and mini-tutorials, we pledge to continue supporting you by answering your questions and simplifying the design-to-print process.
To learn more about how you can be involved in Treering’s 15th birthday celebrations,
- Engage with Treering Yearbooks on Facebook, Instagram, X, formerly known as Twitter, and TikTok
- Read the monthly editor newsletter
- Subscribe to the blog
Staff pictured
Top: Sara C. (Sales), Jordan O. (Community Advocate Team), Ali J. (Sales), Gia W. (Sales), Ed G. (Product Evangelist), Liz T. (Customer Success Manager), Dara A. (Sales), Kate H. (Sales)
Bottom: Dustin A. (Community Advocate Team), Katie P. (Customer Success Manager), Shannon H. (Sales/Social), Sandra V. (Engagement and Onboarding), Louise Kate L. (Community Advocate Team), Aisa A. (Community Advocate Team)
New enhancements to our yearbook builder
Editor requests are at the top of Treering’s to-do list, from introducing a yearbook donation option to click-and-go Heritage Covers. Last year’s Glow Up kicked off this design enhancement. Bottom line: your story evolves, so why shouldn’t your yearbook software?
Two Words: Grouping and Locking
Yearbook editors requested these design tools because they facilitate editing ease, consistency in design, and layer management.
Grouping Feature
By grouping related elements on your spread, it’s easier to edit or modify them collectively. This helps when working on modules or spreads with numerous design elements or layers. A click simplifies the design process and enhances overall efficiency.
Lock Feature
Locking page elements prevents unnecessary edits, especially when working with layers. This feature locks and unlocks theme art, photographs, and text boxes.
When collaborating with others on yearbook design, these features are valuable because they help maintain consistency while giving you increased control over the editing process.
More Space to Create
The most noticeable change is in the yearbook builder: new menus “provide more horizontal space” (that’s user interface speak for Chromebook-friendly).
This includes:
- Moving the navigation and most common editing tools to the top toolbars
- Using the left panel for less-used design features (think glow and drop-shadows)
- Introducing “fit to screen” as a zoom option
- Placing the page switcher, help buttons, notes, and editors in the bottom toolbar
And unless you change the settings, the page builder automatically adjusts so your canvas is always visible.
“How Do I Get Rid of the Red Lines?”
Use the new page warning tray to manage duplicate images, low-resolution images, margin warnings, and spelling errors. If it's irrelevant ("Why, yes, I do want that bleed"), hit ignore and move on.
Your Account
The dashboard continues to be your control center: edit deadlines, cover finishes, and page count with a click. Two updates give you more power.
Dashboard
Your Editor Checklist is now a Quick Links bar: stay on track and get help ITM by watching videos or using our editor guides. Yearbook pro? Minimize the list and get to work.
Switching Between Roles
The top navigation bar also gives parents who double as editors a centralized access point for all their school associations.
- Profile switcher allows an easy switch between editor and parent account
- School switcher helps editors move between multiple campuses or organizations
New Look, Same Treering
By changing out our green, your book will dominate the look of the new interface. This school-first design reminds us that Treering is in the memory-making business because of you.
Happy yearbooking!
Double your donations 2023
In honor of the season of giving, Treering will match up to five yearbook donations per school account. From Tuesday, November 28 through Sunday, December 31, one community book donation equals one Treering book donation. Editors can reassign these books to teachers, promoting students, the principal, or students in need.
How the Donation Match Works
- Enable the Book Donation option on the dashboard
- Let your campus community know 'tis the season to share the (yearbook) love
- Re-assign the yearbooks so recipients can customize or order non-custom books to hand out
This promotion ends at 11:59 pm PST on December 31, 2023. Matched yearbooks will automatically be added to your account by January 30, 2024.
The Fine Print
- Promotion ends at 11:59 pm PST on December 31, 2023.
- Matched yearbooks will automatically be added to your account by January 30, 2024.
- Donations may not be combined with any other promotions.
- Donated yearbooks cannot exist on ship-to-home, invoiced, or PO orders. Credit card or PayPal orders only.
- Ordering donation books will not be available for After Deadline Orders.
Thanks on a platter giveaway rules
Official Participation Rules and Steps to Enter
- You must be a current yearbook editor (23-24 school year) at a Treering school to participate.
- To participate, fill out the submission form and include an image/screenshot of your favorite 23-24 yearbook (the current school year) memory so far. Be sure to include your school name and address (city and state only are fine). Incomplete entries will not be accepted.
- Submissions are due by Wednesday, November 15th, 2023 by 8 PM PT.
One winner will be announced at 11 AM PT on Thursday, November 16th, 11 AM PT on Friday, November 18th, and 11 AM PT on Monday, November 20th on the Treering Facebook page. Each of the three winners will be chosen at random.
Prizes
The three winners will receive a gift card to Honey Baked Ham for the amount of $200.
Ownership
By submitting your photo/image, you have verified the approval of others pictured, and you approve Treering to use your name and school name for any marketing purposes, including but not limited to showcasing on www.treering.com, sharing on social media, and sharing with media.
Thanks for being you. If you have any questions, contact us at marketing@treering.com.
Talking hops and ops with yearbook hero justin warren
Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.
Financial constraints in college led Yearbook Hero Justin Warren to a warehouse job where he unexpectedly began a career pathway in a print shop, eventually becoming the operations manager. Rooted in his love of learning, his passion for innovation, and challenging industry standards, he moved from the print floor to directing Treering Yearbooks’ domestic, coast-to-coast print network. Early this year, Justin worked with cross-functional teams to introduce tactile elements through the Treering Heritage Collection.
How do you respond when people tell you print is obsolete?
I’ve been told that my whole career. Something physical in someone’s hand is so valuable, even though it may sit on a shelf for a bit. It’s so much easier to pull it off the shelf to relive the memories in a beautiful, full-color book than it is to dig through your phone and find a photo you think you took seven years ago.
It’s morphed, definitely, and that’s the great thing about Treering: we’re innovators. We anticipate what the future brings while maintaining that physical connection to our memories.
Speaking of physical connection, what inspired the development of studio-designed, textured yearbook covers?
Touch is a huge component of child development. You remember something you can touch.
One of my biggest “brings” to the company was to bring a more tactile element to our printed yearbooks. It really does bring a new dynamic. Texture has always done super well in print and is difficult to implement. I said, "We're doing this," and collaborated with our print network to create a thick, glossy polymer that extends to the end of the cover and the spine, of which we are proud. The Heritage Collection showcases the possibilities that we have in front of us. All it takes is great development and some research before we execute.
People ask all the time how we manage to have a three-week turnaround. What makes it possible?
It takes a lot of strategy. It takes a lot of preparation. It takes a lot of commitment in order to turn a digital file into a printed file, and it really comes down efficiencies. Being digital, we reduce waste and errors. If there is a problem, we can catch it immediately. We don’t have to remake or rehang plates to do a full run.
We're not going to store any inventory or print extras. Print on demand allows us to personalize and print your custom yearbook as the order comes in. That takes time. Real people look at the yearbooks (it’s not all automated) to check for quality.
Our printing network is coast-to-coast, so we are geographically positioned to service our schools with shorter transit times and increased flexibility. We are striving to be both eco-friendly and economically friendly to pass on savings to schools.
What other innovations set Treering apart?
Personalization, it’s what our thing is. Personalizations changed the world. When I first heard about it, frankly wasn't sure how, on the production side, I was going to produce it. It brought challenges and through discussions and brainstorming, we came up with a product that we can then continue to enhance.
Portrait autoflow is another. Treering utilizes technology to solve an old school problem and be able to bring our little twist to it. Without revealing too much, this is just the beginning.
Rumor has it, that you’re also a master brewer.
My dad and I own it together. We both have full-time careers, but after work, we do sales calls and on the weekends we brew beer. No advertising. It's just literally dad and I all the way from ops to janitor. We have 30 recipes that we rotate we keep five or six going year-round. Living in the Pacific Northwest, IPAs really are the huge driver: really bitter, really floral. Those are the king of beers over here. So we have quite a few of those. We just pick and choose what we're feeling and what our customers want. I mean it's a wonderful experience and it's taught me a lot about smaller companies because I've lived in the corporate world for so long that I get to see the smaller craft of a business. It keeps me out of trouble.
10 reasons we're excited about trl
Recreating the wheel is exhausting. Having Treering Live (TRL) experts provide all their tips and tricks saves time and energy and brings the fun back to yearbooking. (Yes, yearbook is a verb.) Treering tailored TRL for yearbook volunteers, educators, and aficionados of all levels, offering 18 sessions so you can engage with various aspects of the creative process. In anticipation, we compiled our top reasons TRL is the yearbook event of the season.
1. Leave With a Road Map
Figuring out how to get started when you're new to the school yearbook is daunting, especially when the person who used to do it is no longer at the school. Learn how to start and finish your yearbook.
Recommended sessions: I’m the Yearbook Coordinator… Now What? and Teaching Yearbook
2. Live Event
Real-time sessions mean your questions get asked and answered promptly. Between the live Q&A during each session and the chat throughout, there are plenty of opportunities for shared learning.
Recommended sessions: Ask Us Anything with Treering’s Co-Founder Brady McCue and Keep, Change, Stop
3. Connecting with Other Advisers
Because two—or four hundred—heads are better than one, working together turns terrifying yearbook mountains into easy-to-approach small hills. TRL is not just about knowledge acquisition; it's about building connections within the yearbook community during National School Yearbook Week. You'll collaborate with fellow yearbook enthusiasts, sharing your triumphs, learning from your challenges, and forging bonds beyond these three days online.
Recommended sessions: Fundraising and Crowdsourcing and Social Media for Yearbook
4. Making a Plan
From a ladder and coverage calendar to the next marketing campaign, you’re leaving TRL with concrete steps to make the best yearbook yet.
Recommended sessions: Getting Organized and Creating a Marketing Plan
5. Design Inspiration
Yearbook Hero Lauren Casteen introduced us to mild, medium, and spicy design. Wherever you fall on this scale, you will gain an understanding of layout, typography, and color and how to go to the next level. You’ll also be able to help your yearbook team produce robust designs. Because, seriously, no one should yearbook alone.
Recommended sessions: Design 101 and Design 201
6. Three Days of Training
Joining TRL for one or all 18 sessions is a testament to your passion for preserving the memories and historical record of the school year, one page at a time.
7. Cash
Kind of. Because we love a theme, there will be some sort of game in many sessions. Prizes include pizza parties, art supplies, and gift cards for coffee or Amazon.
8. 6+ Hours of PD
Treering loves teachers. You’ll see learning outcomes in the session descriptions, and some of us, unabashedly, speak in teacher-ese. We know the importance of pro-grow opportunities. We know how annoying it is when someone reads their slides.
9. The Treering Difference
Many schools consider changing their yearbook program and need to see Treering’s software firsthand. Busy schedules make it difficult, so we have four opportunities to dive in.
Recommended session: Live Demo
10. The Journey isn’t Over
In keeping with our game theme, your next winning move can take the form of weekly posts on the blog, monthly webinars, and 24/7 support with the Help Center. These myriad options allow flexibility in scheduling and enable you to revisit content or learn something new at your own pace.
Share your top moments during TRL: 23 by tagging us on social using @treering (Facebook and X) or @treeringcorp (Instagram and TikTok) using #trl23.
TRL 2023: start here
It's time to roll the dice and level up your yearbook game with three days of Yearbookopoly! This National School Yearbook Week, attend all three days of our flagship training event, or pick sessions matching your gaming style.
Tuesday, October 3 - Speed Round
A few sessions to start you off strong. A practice session, if you will!
Wednesday, October 4 - Yearbook Player’s Manual
We’ve scheduled concurrent sessions of back-to-back training to answer all your burning yearbook questions.
Thursday, October 5 - Cards Against Editorial Sanity
Meet some of the legends in the yearbook game. Our Treering Yearbook Heroes will spill their secrets and tackle your questions.
Register now for TRL 23. Cost to join? Free! Prizes? Of course!
Disclaimer: Attendees may experience an uncontrollable urge to shout "Checkmate!" during sessions.
TRL 23 FAQs
How much does it cost to register?
Treering Live is a free training event.
I'm not a Treering customer, may I attend?
Yes, please attend. Treering loves to share.
How do I get on Zoom Events?
For best results:
- Use Chrome on a computer
- Update to the latest version of the Zoom desktop client/mobile application.
What do I need to prepare for TRL 23?
Make sure you have the latest version of Zoom, so you don’t miss out! If you are having tech trouble with Zoom, be sure to visit our day-of TRL Support.
Some sessions, such as Teaching Yearbook and Creating a Yearbook Marketing Plan, have work time. To maximize your takeaway, please have your school calendar on hand.
If you’re old school, have paper and a pen to take notes. New school, live post on X, formerly known as Twitter, or Facebook and hashtag #trl2023, #BiteSizedPD, #treering
Will TRL be recorded?
We will record and share all group TRL sessions on the blog. Those who attend the live demos will receive a recording of their session.
Are TRL sessions captioned?
YES! In the toolbar at the bottom of your Zoom screen, click the Show Captions icon.
To enable it for every TRL session, click your profile picture then click Settings.
1. Click the Accessibility tab.
2. Under Closed Captioning, click the checkbox to enable Always Show Captions.
This is my first year leading the yearbook. What should I do?
Welcome! We recommend beginning with either I’m the Yearbook Coordinator, Now What? or Teaching Yearbook sessions. Follow that with Design 101/201 or Getting Organized.
Is this only for first-year advisers?
Returning advisers have curated sessions on social media, marketing, and advanced design.
Can my yearbook students attend?
Student privacy is always our utmost concern. Yearbook classes are welcome to attend together; the adviser must be present to model responsible online engagement.
What is CAT Genius Hour?
The Genius Hour is a drop-in 1:1 session designed to help acclimate first-year advisers/editors to their Treering account. Bring your Treering questions.
Can I get professional development credit?
For our teacher friends who need to apply for professional development or are looking for a yearbook PLC, TRL attendees with gain fundamental knowledge and skills related to yearbook creation, marketing, volunteer management, and effective engagement with students and parents, preparing them to support the yearbook team and contribute positively to the school's yearbook project. (You can quote us on it!)
Upon request, we will offer a TRL 23 certificate of completion for three or more sessions of attendance for attendees.
Introducing treering's heritage collection
If there is one thing we’ve learned in our 15 years, it’s that memories are important. And just like our software, we’re continuously upgrading how we preserve them for you. We spent our summer vacation designing new archival cover options. The Treering Heritage Collection is comprised of six new bespoke designs to enclose your memories from cover to cover.
What’s in a Name?
Often associated with strength, longevity, and wisdom, the mighty oak became the symbol of these studio designs. Like your stories, they are treasured.
Heritage oaks are highly resilient trees that can withstand harsh weather conditions—including droughts and storms—due to their deep root systems and sturdiness. Like your memories, they stand the test of time.
We find these oaks in urban, rural, and suburban areas alike. And because of their age and size, they process more carbon while serving as a home base for many animals. Like your school community, they affect their surroundings.
Heritage Collection Designs
The Heritage Collection is available in 8.5 x 11 hard- and softcovers.
From the Treering Design Studio to Your School
It’s a cliche for a reason: we truly judge books by their covers. That’s why Treering answered the question, “What if I could have a professional designer create my yearbook cover?” Eliminate the what-ifs: you can.
Each Heritage Cover is 3D in texture and covered in our signature gloss. This raised polymer coat acts as a shield, protecting your yearbook from scratches, tears, and fingerprints. Because of it, the ink colors are more vibrant, and your school story is more tangible. Pair your heirloom cover with our fully editable layouts to create a truly unique and long-lasting school treasure. It’s as easy as click, drag, drop, and done!
Kinesthetic Memories
Yerd alert: we’re going to get deep on the science of touch.
Tactile experiences influence memories due to the intricate ways our sensory experiences are woven into the fabric of our memories and emotions, shaping our perception of the world around us and our sense of self. Handshakes and hugs readily come to mind. What about yearbooks?
The short answer: yes!
The scientific one: yes, mechanoreceptors (aka the specialized nerve endings in our skin) respond to specific touch sensations such as pressure, temperature, and texture. They send electrical signals through nerve fibers to the brain, particularly to the somatosensory cortex, which processes tactile information.
How To Use a Heritage Cover in Your Yearbook
It's easy: from the Book Settings editor on your Dashboard, change your cover finish to Heritage. The full instructions are in the Help Center.
Remember, when we touch something, our brain keeps an imprint of it. The raised texture of a Heritage Yearbook Cover can sustain its impact.
Making yearbooks more accessible with opendyslexic
Fonts can be the Marsha Brady of the yearbook world. Overshadowed by epic theme packages and color palettes, the power of typography cannot stay silent. (In fact, the correct font can be louder than your graphics.) With 44 new fonts in the Treering catalog, you can share your story with boldness or a touch of whimsy. It can be focused or zany, handwritten or high-tech.
“Typography, like other design elements, evolves over time. Keeping up with current trends ensures that your designs feel fresh, relevant, and aligned with contemporary aesthetics,” Treering’s Director of Design, Allison V. said. “Typography also strongly impacts how a message is conveyed and perceived. More importantly, we listen to our users and try to accommodate their needs and wants. We often receive requests for fonts and appreciate the input from you.”
One such request came in the form of a text.
Meet OpenDyslexic
Since origin stories are a big deal in the superhero world, here is OpenDyslexic’s: app and game designer Abelardo “Abbie” Gonzalez developed the font in 2011 to help people with dyslexia improve their reading experience.
OpenDyslexic’s design addresses common challenges faced by many readers with dyslexia:
- Letter Weight: OpenDyslexic uses a slightly heavier letter weight, which helps the letters stand out more clearly on the page and reduces letter crowding. When designing for readers with dyslexia, avoid using italics or underlines because they cause letter crowding.
- Bottom Heavy: The base of the letters is slightly thicker, which provides better anchoring for letters. This can reduce the chances of them being flipped or reversed.
- Distinct Letter Shapes: The font uses distinct letter shapes to minimize letter confusion, such as avoiding mirror-image similarities between letters like "b" and "d."
Because it’s an open-source font, it is freely available. You can even make it your web browser’s font.
How Would You Use OpenDyslexic in Yearbook Design?
The short answer: headlines and captions.
The British Dyslexia Association and the UX Movement established Dyslexia-Friendly Style Guides. Summed up, the following tips can increase the readability of your spreads.
- Modular design: use negative space to break up content into meaningful chunks
- Keep backgrounds to a single color, ideally cream or pastel peach, orange, yellow, and blue
- For text, ensure there is contrast between the background and words on your yearbook spread
- Left align text
- Use font size 12-14 pt.
As with anything, it is essential to note that while dyslexia-friendly fonts and design can be beneficial for some individuals, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all learners. If possible, seek stakeholders' feedback during the design process to identify potential improvements.
Artificial intelligence (ai): assuring safe memories
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) inspires nearly all facets of daily life, today’s news focuses heavily on buzzy AI tech like the ubiquitous ChatGPT. From improving the travel, automotive, and healthcare industries to monitoring coral reefs, the benefits of AI seem limitless. (You can even ask for curated movie recommendations!) The yearbook world, of course, is no exception.
Treering’s in-house engineers constantly strive for ways to improve and innovate the yearbook experience for everyone involved, and our AI-driven content review process is doing just that. Here are some ways employing this exclusive technology has helped protect cherished memories for the past several years and counting:
Streamlining the Review Process
One yearbook challenge editors are all-too-familiar with is ensuring that inappropriate content doesn’t make its way onto pages (or worse, the news).
To solve this, Treering implements our automated AI review pipeline before going to print. This process efficiently moderates a book’s content across a network of computers that wield industry-leading and constantly evolving computer vision.
Free Time for Editors
Treering’s AI can swiftly and accurately analyze vast volumes of data (1,430,921 pages year to date, in fact!), flagging them as necessary for review and follow-up. This process allows teams to focus more time and attention on tasks that can’t be automated, like matching students with a stellar list of yearbook superlatives.
Offering the Best of Both Worlds
Of course, the human component remains a vital part of the yearbook review. (Treering loves a good collaboration!) In addition to utilizing AI, we employ staff dedicated to this process.
When teams combine Treering’s content review procedure with other proofing tools, such as our free printed proof, schools can relax, knowing they’ll immortalize the best possible yearbook version.
The applications of artificial intelligence are plenty, and Treering is proud to pioneer its use to proactively benefit schools by making it easier and safer for students and families to capture life’s memories.
Yearbook myths
School-friendly is the descriptor that popped up in an email about yearbook companies. It made me snort. As great as my relationship with my sorority sister-turned-yearbook rep was, I no longer could reconcile the bottom line on the invoice, demands from school administration, and equity concerns for students. While it was time for a change, options seemed limited. Aren't all yearbook publishers the same? That myth and others nearly kept me (and many other advisers) from making a beneficial shift in the name of students. Let's go through the top six yearbook myths together and learn the truth.
Myth 1: Customer Service is a Thing of the Past
Treering re-wrote the traditional approach to yearbook contracts and customer service to meet the changing needs of parents and educators by leveraging the technology they already use in the classroom and workplace. Editors receive real-time help without having to leave school or pre-scheduling an appointment. Instead of having one person on which to depend, there is a team of experts to assist with account management, design, and ongoing training.
Beyond the live agents and customer success managers—most of whom are current or former yearbook advisers—Treering users take advantage of:
These tools improve knowledge sharing and provide their staff and students with more opportunities for development and growth.
Myth 2: I’m Not in the Yearbook
We all know students don’t purchase the yearbook because they are unsure if they will be in it, so we provide coverage tips to help you and your staff gather stories in fresh ways. Also, students who transfer schools mid-year can still be a part of it because yearbook editors can also add students to the portrait section at any time.
In addition, advisers can give students ownership of their memories: every Treering yearbook includes two free pages on which they can drop their vacation, extra-curricular, and milestone photos. (Even better? It’s less than a buck to add two more.)
Myth 3: You Can’t Include Spring Sports and Events in the Yearbook
Editors love being able to set their own deadlines and extend them if they need more time. That December 17 book order deadline is no more. With a guaranteed three-week turnaround, you have beyond February to complete your yearbook, ensuring time to capture lacrosse season, Read Across America Week, and other spring events.
Ship to Home for Fall Delivery
Yearbook Hero Beth Stacy’s school traditionally does a fall delivery. Instead of strategizing distribution over her summer break, she uses Treering's ship-to-home feature so graduates, international students, and military families all receive their yearbooks.
Myth 4: Yearbooks Are Out of Date
In a digital world, it’s nice to have something tangible. Yearbook coordinator Erin McDonald prompts, “Are you going to hand your kid the Cloud when they graduate?”
Yearbooks are a testament to the events, people, and culture of a particular moment in time. They provide a historical account of what was happening in a school, community, or organization and allow us to relive the essence of our past. Because they serve as a showcase for individuals to display their talents and bask in their successes, yearbooks also offer an opportunity to celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of students, staff, and campus organizations
They show how each member contributes to the story of the whole.
Also, from a pedagogical perspective, yearbooks offer a canvas for students, staff, and volunteers to express their creativity through writing, photography, and design.
Myth 5: Numbers are Firm in Fall
It’s freeing to say, “Yes, you can still order a yearbook.”
Tweet
Treering advisers say they never have to say no to a student: if someone misses the school’s deadline, they may order a book to be shipped to home. Your school’s storefront is always open.
Myth 6: I Always Have Too Many Leftovers
Conversely, say goodbye to overruns and hustling boxes of old yearbooks at alumni events. Frankly, schools are financially punished for these and they are a waste of resources and space. Moving forward, every year is a sell-out year because your yearbook shipment only includes what was pre-sold. You can breathe deeply, knowing the pressure to make a sales quota is eliminated. The savings are passed on to families.
The misconceptions about yearbook publishing end here.