About Treering

Since 2009, you’ve trusted us to capture and print your priceless memories, and we reflect on this honor every holiday season. In addition to helping schools raise nearly $2 million in the 2022 school year, we printed over 600,000 custom pages in 2022—that’s a lot of joy. 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 2023. Happy holidays!

What to Expect in 2023

• Semi-monthly training through Yearbook Club
• Design contests for editors and parents
• Your memories arriving within three weeks of clicking Print Ready
• New predesigned "About Me," "Year in Review," and "Best of..." pages
• Superior support as you design, market, and distribute your best book yet
• Weekly blog articles to provide inspiration and resources - subscribe and have them sent to your email

Staff pictured

Top: Chrissy K. (Customer Success Manager), Jason S. (Customer Success Manager), Jen C. (Customer Success Manager), Niri B. (Customer Success Manager), Brian M. (Director of Engineering) with Titan

Bottom: Melizza T. (Community Advocate Team Supervisor), Codey V. (Community Advocate Team - Quality Assurance), Daneesha B. (Community Advocate Team), Ramona E. (Community Advocate Team), Robelyn O. (Community Advocate Team)

Making a yearbook with Treering's online software is as simple as drag and drop. Options such as portrait autoflow and auto layout make anyone look like a professional designer, and integrated professional tools, including a color picker and page designer, give you the flexibility to create from scratch.

Watch a brief software demo.

What Editors Love

Teachers, parents, and students enjoy using Treering's free online creation software to collaborate on their yearbooks. They also enjoy

• Flexible deadlines
• Three-week turnaround
• Custom pages
• No order minimums
• Ease of use

Why Principals Choose Treering

School administrators and the front office team appreciate

• No contracts
• Inclusive pricing: 100lb. paper, software, curriculum, bulk shipping to school, themes
• E-commerce tools that collect payment and show real-time order reports
• Fundraiser capabilities
• Parents can order after the deadline (no one ever misses out!)

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.

Meet the man who created Treering's new color picker. Engineer Nick Pasto grew up among cherry, walnut, and apple growers in Stockton, CA. In addition to his swoon-worthy homemade lasagna (yes, Pasto makes pasta) inspired by his time studying cuisine with Italian grandmas, Nick led the teams which developed many of Treering's other editor favorites:

• Recognition ads
• Spell check
• Marking pages "done"
• Polls
• Language support for Arabic, Chinese, and Hebrew characters
• Alignment tools
• Package tracking improvements

(This is not an exhaustive list by any means.)

How did you move from the classroom to the backroom?

Back then, Treering’s design software was Flash-based, and that was going out. I saw a message that they were looking for developers to change it to HTML5. The opportunity spoke to me because there was a lot of overlap between my professional career and personal interests.

While earning my art education degree, I worked as a graphic designer and animator for my college. I’ve also been an indie game developer.

[Editor's note: Nick made Super Chibi Knight with his eight-year-old daughter who served as the voice actor for the main character; she's now 18.]

How does your background as a classroom teacher make you a better developer?

So many people who work at Treering are currently making yearbooks at their kids’ schools. I’m one of the only engineers who’s served as an adviser. It helps to have real-world experience with our product because I can see it from both sides.

The leadership at Treering looks for a breadth of experience to remain customer-focused and make the best product. The strength of our team is our diversity–our experiences help with ingenuity and problem-solving.

We build in a ton of automation and templates to make things less intimidating. You don’t have to know Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign to do desktop publishing for your yearbook design. Treering’s software is the bridge. 

If you could tell our editors anything, what would it be?

The most impressive part of Treering as a user is the customer service.

Like many first-time advisers, I missed our deadline. The pressure of making sure kids had their books before summer was stressful. As a new teacher, it was too much on my plate. 

I picked up the phone and just communicated with the CAT team and they helped me work it out by using my fundraiser to pay for expedited shipping. My students received their books on time, and I determined this is a company I am interested in learning more about. It was then I knew I wanted to work here.

We Made Magic Happen

Beginning the evening with a conversation on themes, a tour of the new look for Treering Yearbooks app, and a magic show, we transitioned to expert-led breakout sessions. The Magical Katrina wowed us with her close-up magic and improv skills.

Breakouts to Make Your Stress Disappear

Attendees had their choice of four breakouts:

Fundraising with your Yearbook

I’m the Yearbook Coordinator… Now What?

Teaching Yearbook

Selling More Books

Bag of Tricks

While magicians don’t usually reveal their secrets, we gave up a few of ours. Scan the QR Code below to access them.

Check out the full list of upcoming Yearbook Club webinars for even more training opportunities.

This year marks one of changes for Treering. To go with our new look, we have a new philanthropic partnership. Treering Yearbooks is taking another step towards promoting inclusion through partnering with Sandy Hook Promise. By choosing Treering to print your school's yearbook, you not only have access to crowdsourcing options and custom pages, but your purchase is also contributing to the “Know the Signs” prevention programs and K-12 instruction on empathy and inclusion.

Treering Yearbook's custom pages changed the way students tell their own stories: by providing an opportunity for families to upload photos and create their own pages in their student's book, we accurately showcase each student's interests and contributions. Then, crowdsourcing options widened the narrative to include more angles and perspectives from the year.

The "Know the Signs" programs include:

• Start With Hello: For students in grades K-12, Start With Hello teaches youth how to minimize social isolation, marginalization, and rejection by creating an inclusive community that reaches out and connects with at-risk individuals.

• Say Something: For students in grades K-12, Say Something teaches youth to recognize warning signs, especially in social media, from individuals who may be a threat to themselves or others and Say Something to a trusted adult or report it using our Anonymous Reporting System.

• Say Something Anonymous Reporting System (SS-ARS): For students in grades 6-12, SS-ARS enables youth to easily submit safe, anonymous safety concerns through a mobile app, website, or hotline number. SHP’s highly-trained, multilingual Crisis Counselors respond to tips 24/7/365, engaging youth in dialogue to assess and substantiate the tip, provide immediate crisis/suicide intervention, and triage the tip to local school and/or law enforcement response teams as needed.

• Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) Promise Clubs: These student-led clubs empower students in grades K-12 to champion violence prevention in their schools and communities.

Join us to create inclusive yearbooks while teaching compassion and looking out for one another–together, let’s create a culture change!

Can a yearbook company save lives? We're sure going to try!

Things are changing at Treering: you may have noticed the new look of the help center, blog, and website. This visual polish includes sleeker graphics, universal icons, and a more tranquil and optimistic green. Really: it’s the digital equivalent of getting our braces removed.

What hasn’t changed is who we are: your partners for a flexible, stress-free yearbook publishing experience. You are still in control of deadlines, page count, book content, yearbook quantities, editing permissions, and how your yearbooks are sorted in your shipment.

Not Just Cosmetic

Yearbook editors, advisers, and coordinators told us they wanted

• To enter the spread designer with fewer clicks
• More space to edit
• Time to prepare yearbook details before selling the book
• A way to donate books

Menus

Instead of a deep navigation (think: click, a new page, click, a new page, click, do your thing, save), we’ve kept chief editor controls centralized on the Dashboard. And while you're in the editor, you can now focus 100% on layout and design.

While adding photos to a template, do you have an idea for an additional spread? With the paginal navigation up top, you can preview thumbnails of your book and navigate throughout. Using the top navigation, you can also make changes to styles, move pages, and access help articles.

Yearbook Editor

The good news is all your favorites— templates, auto layout, and alignment tools—still exist.

The better news: since the left and right menus have merged, you have more space to edit. The zoom tool is faster and smoother making precision edits easier.

More Time, More Control

Now you can begin selling yearbooks on your school's schedule by setting the date of the sale. We had many editors ask for more time to determine their ladder, page count, and fundraiser. When you’re ready, or on our universal go-live date of October 15, 2022, you can launch the online sales platform.

We recommend taking advantage of the early yearbook sales incentives and discounts.

Book Donation

This option launched in the spring for a trial and the positive feedback made it a keeper. When editors enable this option, parents can purchase an additional book to donate to the school. Some advisers gift them to teachers, and others distribute them to students in need.

We know change can be scary. When Treering entered the yearbook space toting a print-on-demand, no contract yearbook solution, schools were wary of this too-good-to-be-true proposition. We're glad you're on this journey with us.

Wouldn't it be great if your yearbook could help buy your school new Chromebooks or iPads or fund a new STEAM program? We think so too! Treering has already helped schools raise more than $11 million (and counting) and funded all kinds of wonderful things for schools. Make money from something you already do: add any amount to the price of your yearbook as a fundraiser.

Our books are so fairly priced that you don't need to feel guilty about adding a fundraiser to the cost of the book. Let's say the core price of your book is $45, and you add a $5 fundraiser. If you sell 500 books, you will have raised $2,375 for your school! That could cover the cost of a few educational field trips!

Full disclosure (because, hi, we love transparency): Treering charges just 5% processing to cover the credit card and bank fees.

Fundraising in Action

Mercury Mine Elementary

"Treeing's fundraising tools helped my school build a yearbook program that no longer creates a drain on our finances. Now with Treering we MAKE money on our yearbook program. Funds raised from the yearbook go to our school's 501c3 Parent Teacher Group and help us to support the school’s programs and services. Our PTG strives to promote communication, understanding, and cooperation among students, parents, faculty, and the Miner community. Our goal is to promote a supportive and engaging community atmosphere and Treering helps us reach those goals." - Erin

Augusta Circle Elementary

"We use Treering’s fundraising tool in two ways. First, we add to the cost of the book, making $1 off each book sold. We also sell celebration ads to parents. We use our extra funds to provide yearbooks to 5th graders who may otherwise not be able to buy one, so that all graduating students leave with a yearbook. Last year, we raised enough money to refinish the outside basketball courts, which were worn down, cracked, and had become hazardous, plus added two new basketball goals! This year we hope to add a large sunshade over part of the playground with the money we raise through the yearbook. We are so grateful for Treering!" - Ansley

Presidio Middle School

"We give books to 8th graders who are moving up to high school. I give away about 60 books to 8th graders. We call it a contest, [students have to fill out an online form to enter] but it susses out students who might not be able to afford a book and don’t want to ask for a free one." - Janet

PSA on Fundraising With Yearbook Ad Sales

Typically, yearbook ad sales are one way teams do their fundraising.

Generally speaking, schools sell yearbook ads for one of three reasons:

1. To pay back existing publisher debt
2. As an opportunity to teach business skills (sales, advertising, negotiation, and more)
3. As a fundraising effort to purchase new equipment

Number one can happen for myriad reasons: perhaps you bought far too many books last year, maybe your budget was slashed, or you inherited a yearbook program in the red. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate with your publisher for more school-friendly terms. (Thank you for coming to our TED Talk.)

While selling ads is a good way to teach students about business, it’s not a necessity for every yearbook program. Virtually any fundraising opportunity can be turned into something teachable, and selling ads is probably the most resource-intensive of the bunch. This reality is what makes ad sales particularly alluring because they quite literally become part of the finished product.

If you want to add business development consider teaching:

• Problem-solving
• Goal-setting and project management
• Team leadership
• Social media marketing to promote your program, book sales, and crowdsourcing

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.

Meet Abby, Treering’s Community Advocate Team (CAT) Director. Not only does she advocate for schools and parents who need support, but she also advocates for the team she leads by creating a positive, proactive environment.

Do you have a yearbook story for us?

In 7th grade, I won the athlete of the year superlative. The photographer set up her photoshoot after a workout and expected me to do a chin-up. I was a swimmer. The resulting image showed me with my tongue out, hair in disarray, and shirt pulling from my shorts. It told people, “I’m a great athlete, but a mess everywhere else.” I always wondered why they didn’t photograph me in my element, the pool.

And thus, you began fixing yearbook issues! You’re in the midst of our busiest season because April through May are when our spring deliveries go to print.

Yes, this is my favorite time. I started hyping up the team in January by letting them know we are approaching the final stretch. It’s now, in the 11th hour, when customers are putting the final touches on their masterpieces and inevitably things are going to go wrong.

Last summer, we increased our permanent staff to better serve customers. We also increase seasonal help during this time and extended the hours phone and email support are available.

What other new initiatives have you begun?

We are constantly evolving. In fall, we started Welcome Walk-Throughs for new yearbook editors so they are ready to cheerlead their own book. During these one-on-one sessions, an advocate goes over page count, shipping, dates and deadlines, yearbook promotion, and how to engage the school community, set up folders/photo storage, complete portrait autoflow, and go print ready. It’s a lot! We really want to build confidence.

Every day, we learn from customers, and many updates to the app or new themes have come from them! 

How does it feel to see your ideas in motion?

We are just scratching the surface! Last year, I wanted to do something fun for our customers and recognize our community by rewarding them for doing a great job and for all the hours they put in. The #TreeringMemoriesMatter came from that. I’m excited to see how it expanded to the #YearbookHero and #TreeringMemoryMaker contests.

There are always things we can do along the way to help people smile. Whether it’s these large-scale contests or telling yearbook editors what looks great in their books—it’s about kindness. Our customers put hours they don’t have into their craft.

When people think of “support,” they probably envision a cube farm with a bunch of headsets and scripted responses. How is Treering Yearbooks different?

The work culture at Treering Yearbooks is what attracted me to the company in 2012. Our focus has always been on customer service. When most help centers have a “turn and burn” philosophy, Treering doesn’t monitor call times. Our advocacy team is trained to anticipate future needs and educate editors. I tell them, “Answer the unasked questions.”

Every year, satisfaction surveys consistently mention how much yearbook editors and parents appreciate the focused time they receive on the phone from our agents. 

If you could tell a Treering yearbooks customer anything, what would it be?

The CAT team is here to help you every step of the way in your yearbook journey and we are here to help you when you are overwhelmed. There’s no limit to what we won’t do for them (in the yearbook).

Operative phrase: In the yearbook. Visit/favorite/bookmark help.treering.com for more.

All That and a Bag of Chips

We started the night Clueless about yearbooks, and then with a Full House on October 6, 2021, we got Jiggy Wit It: from theme brainstorms to marketing plans, and photo and collaboration tips in between, this is how we do it!

Watch our first-ever live training event for five questions to help develop your theme. Also, you’ll hear actionable ideas to get more photos from your community as well as how to get more yearbooks in more people’s hands. Lastly, learn to take one subject and get eight photographs.

When you need help, you want it the way you want it. Do you want to pick up the phone and talk with a human? No problem. Do you want to watch a video that shows how something works? We've got 100s. Do you want to read step-by-step instructions? We've got a library. Knowing everyone is unique, Treering's yearbook support options ensure you are the Yearbook Hero for your campus.

"I did not know a yearbook company was something someone could love."

Donna Blach, Ronald Reagan Elementary

Email and Phone Support

Your support team is called the Community Advocate Team (CAT) because they champion yearbook advisers.

With Treering, the days of waiting for one person to call you back, schedule a meeting, or come back from vacation are over. We don't have just one person available to you, we have a full US-based team of yearbook support experts at your disposal. We have your back from autoflowing portraits to obtaining an editable flyer for a cover contest.

Large School Support

When you make a yearbook for a larger school, sometimes you need a little more. You know, that person who is not only friendly, but understands your yearbook so well they find the solution that suits you. Customer Success Managers ensure their entire team knows your school, so not only can you reach out to them for help, but anyone they work with. Anytime.

“Liz was (again) extremely helpful! She answered all my questions with confidence and ease, and because she is so very approachable, I knew I could just reach out and get the info I needed to move on quickly! Liz was always available and was flexible in meeting my school community’s needs along the whole way."

Tammy Mougis, Northwood Elementary

“JASON SPRINGER!!!!!!!!!!!! The absolute best human on the planet!!!!! Seriously, I can not even begin to express how amazing he is! He was always available, regardless of what time it was and always willing to lend a hand! He guided me through so many steps and layouts and created awesome tutorials and offered solutions and just literally made my life so much easier during the process. Treering is a very user-friendly program however, Jason made my life so so much easier! Thank you for another beautiful book!!!”

Elina Pavic from Mattlin Middle School

Step-by-Step Assistance and Videos

Are you are DIY person? Then the Help Center, with its videos and step-by-step instructions, is there 24/7 so you can manage your project on your schedule.

Monthly Yearbook Support Resources

Resources to support you and your team go beyond answers. You'll get Treering's free curriculum and access to training to complete your toolkit as you see fit.

Newsletters

Once a month, Treering Yearbook Creators receive newsletters. You'll receive sales, design, and technical resources to both keep you on track and make you smile.

Yearbook Club

Live Yearbook Club webinars offer additional yearbook support and an opportunity to connect with elementary, middle, and high school coordinators. Topics include:

• Yearbook quick start
• Going print ready
• Design ideas
• Social media tips

From start to finish, Treering will be by your side.

As the student rising to the call of leadership, the teacher who is a champion of her students, or the parent hero stepping in, you should have a say in your schedule. You can work out on-demand, watch TV on-demand, why not publish on-demand? Adhering to multiple deadlines while committing to book sales and page counts is impossible when you don't even know how many events will take place this year. At Treering, we believe that schools, parents, and students should be given the flexibility and freedom to build a yearbook without the stress of ANY commitments.

Flexible Deadlines: Finish Your Book When You're Ready

With Treering there's only one deadline: the day you want to finish your book. Three weeks from that day, your books will arrive to your students. Period. Want to change that date, no problem. The date can be moved at any time, to any date you need. The choice is yours.

Flexible Distribution: Ship Your Yearbooks to Your School, or Directly to Each Student's Home

We offer free sorting (alphabetical, by grade, by classroom) and free bulk shipping to the school. If you want more time to capture prom or graduation, you can have the books shipped directly to each student's home for a flat-rate shipping fee. It's your choice!

Flexible Details: Decrease (or Increase) Your Pages or Even Cancel Your Book

Should something change and you need to decrease your page count, we will let you do that anytime before you hit print ready! Need to cancel your school's book altogether (we hope not), you can do that without worrying about incurring any fees. Your school never pays us anything, and your parents only pay if they decide to buy a book.

No contracts and no minimums mean no worries and no stress.

Flexible Collaboration: Collecting Content from your School is Easier than Ever!

For the sake of inclusivity and to capture all aspects of school, it's important to get photos and help from your community. (Repeat after us: "I can't do it all!") Our shared folders and mobile app make it extremely easy to collect content from your school. By making it simple for everyone to submit photos, you're guaranteed to have everything you need to build a unique book this and every year.

Flexible Designing: Thousands of Innovative Page Ideas at Your Fingertips

Complete book looks, including layouts, fonts, graphics, and color palettes, are free for all Treering customers. Don't worry, they are flexible enough that you can make them even more to your liking. You can even upload your own spreads.

As the student rising to the call of leadership, the teacher who is a champion of her students, or the parent hero stepping in, you should have a say in your schedule. You can work out on-demand, watch TV on-demand, why not publish on-demand? Adhering to multiple deadlines while committing to book sales and page counts is impossible when you don't even know how many events will take place this year. At Treering, we believe that schools, parents, and students should be given the flexibility and freedom to build a yearbook without the stress of ANY commitments.

Flexible Deadlines: Finish Your Book When You're Ready

With Treering there's only one deadline: the day you want to finish your book. Three weeks from that day, your books will arrive to your students. Period. Want to change that date, no problem. The date can be moved at any time, to any date you need. The choice is yours.

Flexible Distribution: Ship Your Yearbooks to Your School, or Directly to Each Student's Home

We offer free sorting (alphabetical, by grade, by classroom) and free bulk shipping to the school. If you want more time to capture prom or graduation, you can have the books shipped directly to each student's home for a flat-rate shipping fee. It's your choice!

Flexible Details: Decrease (or Increase) Your Pages or Even Cancel Your Book

Should something change and you need to decrease your page count, we will let you do that anytime before you hit print ready! Need to cancel your school's book altogether (we hope not), you can do that without worrying about incurring any fees. Your school never pays us anything, and your parents only pay if they decide to buy a book.

No contracts and no minimums mean no worries and no stress.

Flexible Collaboration: Collecting Content from your School is Easier than Ever!

For the sake of inclusivity and to capture all aspects of school, it's important to get photos and help from your community. (Repeat after us: "I can't do it all!") Our shared folders and mobile app make it extremely easy to collect content from your school. By making it simple for everyone to submit photos, you're guaranteed to have everything you need to build a unique book this and every year.

Flexible Designing: Thousands of Innovative Page Ideas at Your Fingertips

Complete book looks, including layouts, fonts, graphics, and color palettes, are free for all Treering customers. Don't worry, they are flexible enough that you can make them even more to your liking. You can even upload your own spreads.