Bookends:
Publishing a Youth Group Yearbook

by Ken Matthews

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories;
They're all that's left you

(Paul Simon)

"They’re here!" an indistinct teenage girl squeals from the far end of the long hallway. My friends and I loiter amid open lockers concocting injurious ways to get in trouble over summer vacation, but understanding what advent the spirited announcement signified, we cut short our witless ruminations and scurried toward the source of the broadcast. Their arrival marked one of the few bright spots during the last week of school, when final exams unmercifully shackled us to our desks before finally granting a three-month parole. The yearbooks had arrived!

We quickly broke free from our punitive studies, and filled the hours and days that followed dissecting their every page, scanning thumbnail-sized class portraits, scrutinizing group photos, and of course, plundering the candid shots: the freckled kid peeling Bubblicious off his face following a botched attempt to best his buddy--Coach Burgess’s icy Gatorade shower as the scoreboard clock ticks off the final seconds in the Homecoming rout—the inert tenth-grade girl grabbing a few Zs on page 97 of her World History book.

I still have that yearbook, along with the others that chronicle my high school years. Every now and then I pull one of these dusty annuals from the bookcase and peruse their memories, the Class of 1983’s memories--my memories. No doubt, many of you have similar recollections about your high school yearbooks.

A few years ago, I was having lunch with a good friend who’d recently taken a youth minister position at a nearby church. He’d always spoken so passionately about his calling to serve youth, so I congratulated him on his new opportunity, and applauded his commitment to such a challenging, though rewarding vocation.

When I asked of his first weeks on the job, he replied, "The kids just finished up their yearbook."

"Yearbook?" I asked, unsure exactly what he meant.

"Sort of like a high school annual. Apparently, they publish one every year, and present it to the congregation on Youth Sunday during the worship service. They’d practically completed the project by the time I started, so I didn’t have much of a hand in it."

What a terrific idea! Though I’m sure a good number do, I’d never actually heard of a youth group publishing their own yearbook. What a great way for teens to document their time together, to reflect on their experiences, and to build a shared history, but one that is also profoundly personal.

As with any project, organization is the key to success. Here are a few tips to help you organize a yearbook project for your youth group.

Determine what type of yearbook to produce and how many.
Depending on the computer skills of your group, you may have someone who can produce a CD yearbook with pictures, video, music, text and voiceover. While more time-consuming to create, they are generally inexpensive to reproduce.

If you’re working on a tight budget, you may decide to produce just one copy of the yearbook to present to the congregation. However, if your group can afford to contract a yearbook publisher, you should consider producing sufficient copies for each teen. Like high schools, you can offset the added expense by selling the yearbook to those youth who wish to purchase one. Since youth groups are always trying to raise money, you might even consider selling the yearbooks to members of the congregation as part of a fundraising effort. A good time to hold this fundraiser is on the Sunday the youth present the yearbook to the congregation, when the excitement level for it is already high.

Establish Goals.
This doesn’t mean set rigid deadlines that are so aggressive that it turns the project into a pressure-cooker. The project should be fun. Nevertheless, it’s important to establish a few reasonable deadlines that will motivate your teens and give them intermediate goals they can accomplish. By meeting these deadlines, the group will experience the satisfaction of a job well done, and it will give them added confidence that they can complete the project.

Let the youth do as much of the work as possible.
Resist the urge to do most of the work yourself. Remember, it’s their yearbook. They’ll be more excited and engaged in the project if they feel a sense of ownership in its production.

Assign photographers.
Pictures are the backbone of any yearbook project. Most groups have one or two kids who own cameras. Get them involved. Have them document the year with photos. Make sure they take a variety of shots. Like a high school annual, you’ll want a good mix of photos that record--and produce--a range of emotions: joy, personal reflection--even laughter. Capturing humorous moments among youth is usually not a problem!

If your budget permits, have the photographers take color and black & white photos. Some moments, particularly humorous ones, are better suited for color, while others that are more reflective or somber are often more poignant in black & white, which gives these shots a more artistic and sophisticated tone.

Assign writers.
A youth group yearbook relies more heavily on text than its high school counterpart. Mission trips, community projects, and volunteer work, such as working at a homeless shelter, require thoughtful narrative and commentary to complement the photos.

Assign artists and page-layout designers.
Even if your budget dictates a project more in line with a scrapbook than a yearbook, you’ll need youth with artistic flair and a good eye for design to generate artwork and graphics, and to plan page-layouts.

Assign editors.
If you have one or two strong leaders in your group, consider assigning them as editors. This responsibility will provide them with an excellent opportunity to highlight their leadership abilities, and the experience will look good on their college applications.

Remember your role.
Your role is to empower your teens, and to offer practical guidance and suggestions that will ensure the success of the project, but again--let them do the work.
For more information
If you want to explore the yearbook project in more depth, here’s a great website that offers tips for some of the more detailed aspects of its production. It also provides links to a variety of publishers that specialize in annuals:

http://pages.zdnet.com/biswire/YearbookORG/

A Youth Group yearbook is a fabulous way to create a running history of your church’s youth group. Many groups choose to present a new annual each year on Youth Sunday or Homecoming. You can then archive the new edition in the church library with earlier volumes. It’s a formative, though fun, project that helps teens learn the fundamentals of journalism, publishing, substantive photography, and graphic design. Not to mention, it builds a sense of community within the group, and preserves treasured memories--both shared and personal.

Ken Matthews has over tens years experience in Christian education and church leadership. He has a BBA in Computer Information Systems from Georgia State University, and is also a graduate of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta where he received a Master of Divinity. Ken is an avid reader, and also enjoys running and writing fiction.