It’s Time to Start Recruiting Your Yearbook Staff: Adviser Tips and Tricks

Incidental Recruiting vs Active Yearbook Recruiting With Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson, adviser at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, California, focuses specifically on incidental versus active recruiting. He emphasizes the importance of promoting the yearbook within the school community. Wilson suggested various strategies to increase visibility and engagement, such as encouraging students to find people, talking about the yearbook at any opportunity, ensuring the yearbook has a presence in students’ lives, maintaining an active social media presence, organizing special yearbook days, training photographers to discuss the class, and making personal contacts with students, counselors, teachers and families. 

The overarching message is to be proactive in promoting the yearbook and not underestimate the impact of having a strong presence in the school.

Starting Early and Promoting Effectively with Annie Green 

As a high school staff, 8th grade orientation is a great place to start your recruitment journey. Green’s high school has a two-hour 8th Grade Orientation night, where students and families visit various club and elective class displays in the cafeteria. Media students distribute a document titled Top 10 Reasons To Sign up for Student Media along with treats to distribute. This event is crucial, as personal conversations with yearbook students significantly influence freshmen in choosing their electives. 

Recruitment promotion for Green is done through posters, social media and assemblies, including a “Cover Reveal” video shown at the Fine Arts Assembly in May. The video features clips of students throughout the year and reveals the yearbook cover, garnering thousands of views after being shared on the school district’s Facebook page and other platforms. Targeting your student body in ways that are accessible to them, like social media, is a great place to start when finding new staff members. 

Universal Skill Building with Lindsey Shirack

Engaging in a successful yearbook program requires a significant amount of effort, but the potential rewards make it worthwhile. Emphasizing the opportunity to contribute to something larger than oneself, the work done will have a lasting impact. The focus is on developing skills applicable to any future career, encompassing both hard skills like certification and project management, as well as soft skills such as leadership and communication. 

The message encourages setting oneself apart by actively showcasing the program and its opportunities, attending workshops, reaching out to feeder schools, having students manage booths at fairs and appointing editors to leadership roles. The underlying theme is that actions, beyond mere class participation, define one’s success in yearbook. 

It’s Time To Start Yearbook Staff Recruiting: Next Steps 

Dynamic recruitment strategies are essential for anyone trying to build a successful yearbook team. The insights provided by seasoned advisers Brian Wilson, Annie Green and Lindsey Shirack offer valuable perspectives on different aspects of recruitment. 

The video series, It’s Time To Start Recruiting, not only elaborates on the strategies discussed in the blog but also provides a visual and dynamic guide to implementing these ideas effectively. Whether you are a seasoned adviser or someone new to yearbook staff recruiting, this video series serves as a comprehensive resource, offering practical advice and inspiring examples to help you build a successful and impactful yearbook team. 

For additional recruitment resources, be sure to visit our recruitment page to supplement your efforts. Happy recruiting!