Growing Pains

2011-2012 was a tough year for the Journalism Club. Our second year of existence began with a huge membership and plans to increase our publication from prior year to 3 per semester. For a club, this is pretty ambitious, particularly since we are 100% self-supporting. My summer institute at Arizona State University had me so pumped up with enthusiasm, and our membership included so many bright, enthusiastic, dedicated students, that I was sure we could do whatever we set out to do.

Now, at the end of the school year, we are reflecting on what we learned and resolving to make next year better. We learned that we should not begin to lay out an issue of the paper until we have the ads in hand to pay for it. We learned that once we get behind financially it becomes ever more difficult to recover. We learned that a lot of people appear to be enthusiastic at the beginning but that many will fall away when times get tough.

The field trip to the SF Chronicle was very informative though very different from what any of us expected. Several highly experienced writers and editors shared their experiences with us in the room where the staff meets each day to review the paper. A group from University of Nevada at Reno was visiting the same day, so we shared the room with them, getting the perspective of a college paper as a bonus.

We ended the year having published 4 issues and $500 in debt. Attendance at meetings went way down; several officers stopped showing up. I wondered if I should continue advising, since my students seemed to need a different kind of adviser: I believe that the students need to lead the club, with advice and guidance from me, but maybe they need someone who will be more directive. When I posed this question to the remaining officers, they disagreed, saying that nobody else is as qualified as I am, and they need me. OK, so I'm on board for the future.

We are working on producing our first annual Journalism Summer Camp, with guest speakers from two local newspapers, student-run workshops on a variety of topics, some fun reporting activities, and a day in the computer lab  so experienced members can lay out the first issue of the 2012-2013 school year and new members can begin to learn the ropes of InDesign from our coach.

This blog clearly is not getting much attention from this adviser, but I hope to check in now and then to keep it somewhat current. Check out Wolf Prints at the American Canyon High School web site, where youll find links to our PDFs.

Happy summer!