How to Train an Army and Fight a War At the Same Time

The Yearbook elective gained 10 new staffers this semester. For once, our staff actually fills up all of the seats in the classroom, and then some. This is probably the largest the elective has been in years, and with all these new staffers, some changes will have to be made.

*Dramatization of the swelling numbers of Yearbook staffers

For one, I’ve already set a plan into motion for training the newbies while still getting work done. Ever since the slip with Deadline 1, we’ve been playing catch up on all the deadlines. I know that it’s important to train the new staffers, but I don’t want to dedicate TOO much time to training, because I don’t want to risk falling behind again. Therefore, I initiated Operation H.T.G.R. (or Hit The Ground Running). There will be a few lessons here and there to give the rookies a foundational knowledge of yearbook, but they’ll be learning the specifics in their beats (or groups).

Hannah the Fearless Photo Editor shows the newbies how to upload a photo.

Malorie and I took some time to rework the beats so they would include the new staffers. (In case you don’t know, a “beat” is a group of 2-3 staffers who are assigned to keep updated on the happenings of a certain aspect of the school. For instance, those on the Drama beat are required to know when the rehearsals are, who got what lead role, when the show is, etc.) These new beats are a mix of experienced and rookie staffers, and the goal of this experiment is for the experienced staffers to show the newbies the ropes, show them how to keep up with a beat and how to stay organized.

However, I don’t want the new staffers to think yearbook is ALL work. I have to balance a relatively rigorous training regimen with enough staff bonding so they ENJOY their time here. Get to know everyone, bring little surprises in the form of baked goods. Morale is extremely important for a staff, and it especially helps out when the staff is under pressure.

Look at these happy editors! Their morale is DEFINITELY high!

This seems to be some sort of test of my leadership. I had gotten used to working with the same people under the same conditions. Now there are new (inexperienced) staffers, two deadlines left and not much time to complete them in.  My goal is to help these new staffers assimilate into the elective, and perhaps enjoy their time so much that they join again next year. Should this work, it would fulfill the “Legacy Initiative” I wrote about for last month’s extra blog post.