A yearbook disclaimer tells your readers that you did your best but–let’s be honest–the yearbook is really one large class project and, even when we’ve proofed something 362 times, we still end up with mistakes. Adding a statement in the back of your book is a nice way to remind people that, while you may LOOK like a superhero, you’re still just human.
From Charlotte Wood Middle School, Danville:
This yearbook is produced entirely by students in the Yearbook class in a learning situation who are responsible for layout, copy and picture selection on each page. Unlike a lot of schools, our pages are sent to the publisher ready to print which means that all photos, copy, captions and headlines (using Adobe InDesign CS2) are done at school. Given the limitations of time and budget, it is our goal to give fair and equal coverage to all aspects of school life, September through early March, which is our final deadline for a June delivery. There are, however, some things over which we have little or no control:
- pictures that don’t turn out
- changed dates
- cancelled dates
- students who miss both school picture days due to absences
- parents who do not turn in baby ads by the deadline
Consequently, any omissions or errors are purely accidental and are no way intentional on the part of the yearbook staff, the adviser or the publisher.
Finally, every page is proofread at least three times before being sent to the publisher. We regret any misspelled words, missing punctuation, misspelled names and offer our apologies to anyone affected.
*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “Y” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com
We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…
I have an assistant principal who coddles every parent complaint and feels the need to have a formal sit down with me at the end of every year to stress every mistake made! This is very frustrating when all he does is brow beat me, yet never has anything positive to say. Any suggestions on how to deal with him during a meeting??
Love this site! Thank you so much!
Kym,
We’ve all been in these type of meetings, so we feel your pain! We understand your frustration, and we do have a couple of suggestions for you, though you’ve probably already had your year-end meeting. First, we suggest that you acknowledge this person’s role in dealing with parent phone calls. While that might seem counter-intuitive in this situation, sometimes individuals from the school community at large are not always gentle when calling with concerns or complaints. Having to deal with those phone calls can be very frustrating and even difficult. Sometimes a little acknowledgement can go a long way!
Secondly, we are assuming that this is either an adjunct duty for you and/or students are involved in the production process. You can gently remind this administrator that producing/overseeing the yearbook is not your only duty. While you do your best to catch mistakes before the book goes to print, you have other duties that demand your time and attention, so mistakes are going to happen. Nothing is intentional and most can be addressed in a way that satisfies the family involved. We even suggest that you offer him the opportunity to proof pages before they are submitted. Our experience has been that he may take you up on the offer, but after the first round of proofing he will most likely defer to your expertise. ;0)
Also, if you do have students involved in the production of the yearbook, share with your administrator that this is a year-long, project-based learning environment with many mini life-skill lessons along the way. Students are learning to work together, to plan out a long-term project, to meet deadlines, to follow very specific specifications, etc. Dealing with the disappointment of a final product not being perfect is just another life-skill they are acquiring through the process.
Finally, after you have gone through all the mistakes in the book, ask what he likes best about the book. This may catch him off guard, but it will force him to find some positive things to say, and will allow him to also see that there are a lot of great things about your publication. You might even show him a spread or a photo that you particularly like. It will help end the meeting with everyone feeling a little better about things, and hopefully about each other.
We hope you are still proud of your publication. You put in a tremendous amount of time and energy, and you should be proud of what you have accomplished. We here cheering for you all the way!