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Yearbook Editor Works to Build Staff
by Lesli Frazier
Miley White (left) checking progress with Megan Moran
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She is taking fifteen credit hours, runs cross country and track, works for the Hilltop, is a Challenger peer helper, and to top it all off, is this year's Laurel editor.
Junior Miley White handles it all -- with special support: "I get most of my support from my relationship with God. Everything I do, God is the head of it. I know He has a plan for my life and that if I give Him every area of it, then He can only make it better. He has really helped to make yearbook go smoother this year. I get stressed out, and I'm like, "Dear God, help me!" And He has always been there."
Being yearbook editor "is a lot of responsibility. It takes up most of my time," said Miley. Among other things, it involves coming up with the "ladder" - an outline of which activities and organizations will be on which page.
There are four deadlines, each covering 32 pages. One complication centered around the sports schedules. "We wanted to put sports earlier in the yearbook," said Miley. But it turned out that wouldn't be possible because the deadlines for the earliest pages are in the fall. Spring sports don't begin until after the yearbook's January deadline. So layouts for the sports pages were pushed to the last deadline in February.
Lots of photos have to be taken, but "It's not just pictures," said Miley. "You have to write captions that go with them - interesting ones - and then you have to write up a little information about each club and organization. You have to know everybody's name if you put their picture in the yearbook." This year's yearbook has special significance because it is the school's 150th anniversary.
"I really prayed about it this year, because I knew it was going to be hard, so I said, 'Dear God, please give me a staff so that they can help make the yearbook look really nice.' I was really nervous, but 20 people responded to the email I sent out asking for a staff, so I was really excited.
"One guy emailed me and was like, 'I'm not really involved in the school. I'm thinking about majoring in graphic design, but I'm not really sure, so we'll see how this yearbook thing goes and then I'll decide. I want to get more involved in school.'"
Miley was excited by the response. "I was like, oh man, people want this to be a really big program, and I want it to be a big program, because in the past it hasn't been. One student did the whole thing by herself last year. That's not a program."
Miley found that lots of people who came out for the job had done yearbook in high school. "They had been editors and photographers and interviewers. They had a lot of skills that weren't being utilized. What I did this year was seek to organize a program for a staff."
As the semester went on, many of the people who came to the first meetings found they couldn't commit to the work because of time limitations. "Now our staff is down to five people."
Little time to relax
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Miley has outlined responsibilities for staff members and has arranged for up to three academic credits in the spring for each of the five core staff workers who have contributed substantial amounts of time. She and co-editor Carlee Macon will also qualify for spring credits and are sharing a $1,500 stipend.
As she pointed to a dry erase board with names of the yearbook staff and assignments, Miley said that the hard thing about being an editor is, "You have to motivate your staff members to do the work and know exactly what they have to do. You have to provide the facilities, provide the resources, and have meetings each week to give your staff the information they need."
Being an editor is "asking a lot of questions and evaluating if what you have on a page is good."
Miley is majoring in graphic design with minors in English and business. "I plan to be a graphic designer. And I thought, especially if I'm working for a magazine, it would be good to have a minor in literature because it incorporates a lot of writing and communication to the public, and it would be good to have a business minor so I don't get taken for my money."
Around campus, "I look up to Grant Gosch as a person on campus because I like how he came in and hasn't made the excuse that we have no money. He's really done a lot with the Outdoor Center and has made programs for students that are really fun and successful. I think that's how things happen around Mars Hill. Individuals take the time to make programs happen."
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