Who are the spring yearbook winners of this prestigious new Jostens national award?

Last fall Jostens announced a new award for top yearbook programs, the Jostens National Yearbook Program of Excellence.

There are a number of yearbook awards out there. Some awards from other yearbook companies are rather contrived and seemingly everyone wins. I remember one yearbook adviser who joked that his staff won an award every year from their former company but they never took it seriously. Why give a deadline award when the staff didn't make their deadlines? It was just a way for the representative to say he worked with "award winning" staffs and apparently that's pretty prevalent.

Many esteemed awards are based on journalism principles, design, photography and the like. Columbia University in New York has the CSPA's, along with the NSPA's or similar awards. Here in Pennsylvania the state School Press Association (PSPA) has their own statewide awards each year on the same guidelines.

While these are valued awards that recognize the quality of work in a yearbook, none of these awards deals with the performance of a yearbook staff. I know of a number of award-winning programs that have a hard time hitting any page submission deadlines, or their book sales are struggling despite the award-winning book, or they are way late finalizing their cover design or other items, or the coverage of their entire student body is poor. The book may look great but the program can often be a mess, often costing the school a lot of extra money.

In response, Jostens came up with a new national award based on the overall performance of a yearbook staff. The National Yearbook Program of Excellence Award is based on several criteria that every effort should include to create a well-rounded successful campaign. These criteria include hitting book sales goals, hitting student coverage goals, hitting or beating deadline goals of various kinds, and running a successful distribution event to mark the culmination of the yearbook experience. These are schools that run their yearbook work on-time, on-budget and work hard to spread the coverage to as many students as possible. Ultimately that means a more valuable yearbook to all students and a staff that runs well and is financially successful. And for the advisers the award is a great feather in their cap with their administration and peers.

Two weeks ago Jostens announced this year's spring yearbook winners of the first annual Program of Excellence Award. Even though Jostens works with well over 10,000 spring yearbook schools across the country, only around 250 spring schools qualified for the award. What do winners receive? They get a stylish plaque for display in your classroom or trophy case along with a very large banner for some high traffic area of your school to remind everyone of your accomplishment. We also provide a professional media release for schools to use with local outlets to further promote your award. You'll score plenty of brownie points with everyone!

Here in Pennsylvania only 13 spring yearbook schools qualified, and I'm honored that three of those schools work with me. Let me honor each of these yearbook staffs here...

CALVARY CHRISTIAN ACADEMY, Huntingdon County: Though they are small, this school proves every year that size doesn't matter in making a great yearbook. Adviser Becky Coleman and her staff do a great job covering their students and activities in their Banner yearbook, and I loved their staff-created custom cover design this year. Their pages are well designed with plenty of info to remember the school year. I had a chance recently to inform their teachers of the new award during a faculty meeting and the announcement was greeted with lots of applause.

NORTH PENN HIGH SCHOOL, Tioga County: Co-advisers Whitnie Weaver and Samantha Yonker have done a remarkable job with their program after just two years at the helm. Now their effort hits deadlines and meets sales goals, and their staff works hard to show as many students as possible for our 3X goal, this year hitting a staggering 92 percent of the student body. They even came up with their own custom cover sketch which was finished off by one of our Jostens State College artists. Their theme this year was North Penn Rising, perfect for this new national award.

PORT ALLEGANY HIGH SCHOOL, McKean County: Adviser Kim Bowser deserves so much credit for this effort. When she and I began working together several years ago their Tiger Lily yearbook was struggling financially and in every facet. We immediately began tackling the financial issues and everything else has fallen into place thanks to Kim's leadership. Student coverage is fantastic and this book has one of the best advertising efforts of any school in my region, bringing in much needed revenue to create a great book while keeping it affordable for students in an area that isn't booming economically.

I had a few other spring schools come close to winning and I'm hoping they'll make that extra effort next year to qualify to join this special group. And of course the pressure is now on for the three winners to repeat next year - I think they can.

As for fall yearbook staffs who are currently finishing up their efforts for 2012, those Program of Excellence winners will be announced later this summer. There are several schools of mine who have a good shot at making it. For those yearbook advisers and staffers reading the update here this week, re-double your efforts to hit the award goals. Don't know them? For advisers, on your Yearbook Avenue home page in the upper right click on the Excellence tab to see the rundown and where your staff stands right now.

It's the home stretch of the school year, in some cases just days remaining. Spring schools, let's make your distribution a BIG deal. And for fall schools the word is simply FINISH because no one wants to work on yearbook over summer vacation. Finish strongly and go off to summer break feeling that proud sense of accomplishment.

Is your yearbook staff using a cool Jostens Yearbook Widget to showcase some of your work, along with including quick links for buying your book or sharing images with you? Below is my own fun yearbook widget - ask me today about how to start yours. It's FREE, easy to use and could bring your yearbook effort some big dividends!