How can I survive Distribution Day?
Distribution Day Survival Guide
If thoughts about yearbook Distribution Day make you seriously consider escaping to Bora Bora, leave your passport at home and rethink your travel plans. Distribution Day might not be as bad as you think. A simple 1-inch binder and eight dividers with tabs from your favorite office supply store are the answers to all of your worries.
My school is big, really big, 3811 students big, and with a big school can come big Distribution Day problems. We order 2,000 copies of a 416-page book that is offered to students in grades 7–12. Those figures are enough to make the mosquitoes in Tahiti look inviting.
After suffering through the same Distribution Day pains year after year, I became organized and decided to take control. Here is how the Distribution Day binder system works:
The binder is divided into eight sections:
Distribution Memos, Volunteer Info, Staff Jobs, Database Printouts, Complimentary Books, Special Requests, Delivery Problems, DWG (my initials). Each of the eight sections has the following information in it and I can turn to any of the colorful tabs and provide someone (principal, teacher, parent volunteer, staffer) with an accurate answer quickly.
Distribution memos:
Although I send several school wide e-mails regarding Distribution Day plans (time to release students from class, list of students who have preordered books, name of my staff who will be helping out, etc), I discovered that I couldn’t remember what information was in those e-mails when there were 253 juniors in the cafeteria. An administrator mentioned during Distribution Day that she never received a particular e-mail, I was able to give her a copy of the e-mail she needed. Make several copies of all e-mails or memos and keep them in this section.
Volunteer info:
I work with our school’s PTSA (Parent Teacher Student Association) to recruit at least 30 volunteers to help my staff distribute the books. The volunteer coordinator and I discuss the first part of April what my needs will be, how many volunteers I will need, what jobs the volunteers can expect to be doing.
On one sheet of paper I keep a copy of what volunteers will be showing up, what time frame they will be working, and what work station they have been assigned to. In this section there are enough copies of the procedures I would like volunteers to follow when a student goes to collect his book.
Staff Jobs:
The year one of my editors showed up in flip-flops ready to load 65-pound boxes onto push carts, I was ready to scream. Now I pass out a list of staffer and editor jobs the week before Distribution Day. This list explains what time to show up to the Shipping and Receiving Room, what part of the alphabet they will be helping with, what to do if they have a delivery question and what to wear (staff shirt, comfortable shorts and shoes – no flip flops). Any staffer/editor who violates the rules heads back to class. I found that my patience runs low on this day. In this section I keep a copy of the list I passed out the week before and what job each student has been assigned.
Database printout:
After preordered book sales take place and are finalized, we run the database which is broken down into an alpha sort by grades.
My Business Editor provides me with a hard copy of the database. Although students are instructed to go to the “problems table” where I have three business editors with laptops, my copy of the database allows me to intervene if I need to.
Complimentary books:
We provide over 50 complimentary books to sub school principals, the library, police, photography company, etc. In order to remember who has received a copy, I have a master list that shows which student of mine hand delivered the book, the recipient signs the paper and then I keep the originals in my binder.
Special Requests:
As we near Distribution Day, I receive special requests mostly from parents. A family has moved and would like the book mailed to them. Or, the soccer team will be absent due to a championship game. In this section I keep printouts of the student’s new address and whether or not they have paid an additional fee to have the book shipped to them. If the soccer team is leaving school early that day, I have a list from the Athletic Director of who is on the soccer team. I’m willing to provide these students with their book earlier that day. Again, this section is where I keep extenuating circumstances.
Since our school’s postal system can’t handle the weight of our book, I take the books to the local post office. Last year I ended up making three separate trips since last-minute requests occurred. This year I’ll wait until the end of school and make one trip.
Delivery problems:
For the random comments I would hear about the book, I took the name of the person making a suggestion or complaint and ideas he had. These notes become ways to make next year’s book better, in a sense, comments from the community became goals for the new staff.
DWG:
This is the place where I keep notes to myself on ways that Distribution Day could run smoother. From last year’s notes, I know that I need more pens for parent volunteers; colorful Sharpie pens put people in a good mood; for my staff’s Distribution Day lunch break they enjoyed a catered lunch consisting of fruit and veggie platters, ice cream bars, salad, a special order cake with our theme name in icing…and pizza.
Also, I know when I get home that night I will be physically exhausted. Turning on the Travel Channel and vicariously escaping to a tropical island just might work after all.
Contributed by:
Dana Gorman, Former Yearbook Adviser
Lake Braddock Secondary School, VA
Yearbook Discoveries Volume 12 Issue 2