FCHS Yearbook Staff Win Award

This year was a year of “firsts” for the Fannin County High School yearbook staff. Not only was it the first year that the book was all color, but it was also the first year that the school has won a national journalism award. Josten’s Publishing, Inc. is one of the nation’s largest publishers of high school yearbooks. Josten’s Representative, Pat Cornelius, attended the Awards Ceremony on May 19th to present the Yearbook of Excellence Award to Senior Editor, Sarah Pirkle. He said, “Jostens works with over 19,000 schools across the country and this award is earned by less than 5% of those schools. It is an amazing accomplishment for the yearbook staff to reach the criteria that qualifies them as a Yearbook of Excellence.” The award is based on four major areas:

Coverage – at least 50% of the students in the school must be featured 3 or more times in the yearbook. FCHS exceeded this requirement by featuring 70% of the students at least 3 times in this year’s book.

Sales – at least 75% of students must purchase a yearbook and the staff must incorporate a unique marketing plan throughout the school year.
Productivity – all deadlines must be met on time. This was not an easy accomplishment for the FCHS staff considering the amount of days that were missed due to inclement weather.

Distribution – the staff must plan and execute a special program for the school on the day the yearbooks are handed out. This has long been a tradition at FCHS and one that the students look forward to each year.

“I am so very proud of the students who worked on this book,”

said Jill Dyer, the faculty adviser.

“They have really set the bar high, but I’m confident that the book will continue to get better and better each year.” Because the book was all-color, the cost of production increased significantly this year. Mrs. Dyer said, “We want to thank all of the businesses that have contributed by purchasing advertising space in the book. It is because of their support that we are able to produce a high-quality book and still manage to keep the cost affordable for our students.”