subject: Middle Schools Save Money On Yearbooks [print this page] Middle School Yearbook, the global leader in digital yearbook software, has launched their newest software release in an effort to aid ailing school budgets. Cuts to education budgets across North America have forced schools to look for innovative ways to raise funds and avoid sculpt deficits. Without supplementary funding many schools each year have to cancel programs or close down entirely. The newspapers are full of heartbreaking stories around schools that have had to make tough decisions in order to meet school budget:
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* In Michigan, some teachers have been asked to pay more for their health insurance.
* In Hawaii, Molokai High School has had to shorten its school year to save money by closing its doors every other Friday.
These are only some of the stories that are appearing in our newspapers every day.
Traditional fundraising events like bake sales, walkathons and car washes are attracting fewer and fewer donations because people are holding onto their money more tightly during the current economic instability.And the problem extends beyond the public school system. Colleges and Universities across the continent are finding it increasingly difficult to operate at a profit. Recently, Baruch College in New York declared that it couldn't even afford to have yearbooks printed for their graduates. They currently owe their yearbook publisher, Jostens, $17,200, an amount they simply cannot afford.
Yearbooks Online has partnered with over four-hundred schools from theUnited States, Canada, UK, Hong Kong, and dozens of others countries and helped them raise funds through their annual yearbook. Recently, the New York Military Academy as well as US Military forces based in Iran have partnered with Yearbooks Online to preserve their memories of training and fighting for their country.
Traditional yearbooks are expensive to produce. Not only is printing costly, but the time and effort required to compile and format a yearbook is significant. Digital yearbooks are much cheaper and easier to create. With Yearbooks Online, schools pay an annual licensing fee of $499 USD and are free to produce as many copies of their yearbook as they like.Consider this example: after factoring in the cost of software and CD's or DVD's, a school of 1000 students selling the yearbook for $15 each, would make over $13,500 in profit! So not only are schools saving money by cutting out the exorbitant printing costs of a traditional yearbook, they're also raising money by selling their new digital yearbooks for a much higher profit.
The founder and CEO, Ruthy Navon, started the company in 1999 when her children were still in school. "As a mother of three children, I have always been involved with helping schools raise money. I noticed that printed yearbooks captured only a fraction of what really happened during the entire school year. Thousands of pictures and videos were archived, but there was no way to share them. With Yearbooks Online, schools now have an easy to use solution that captures more memories and helps them raise money at the same time."
Where some schools are really cashing in though, is by not only using Yearbooks Online to create their annual yearbook, but also as a way to create and share other events throughout the school year that may interest their students. Big events like class trips, dances or academic achievements can all be captured on a disc and sold to students as a way to preserve memories while raising funds. The same goes for clubs or any other special interest group. Anything and everything associated with the school year is acceptable for use. Essentially, the potential for fundraising is limitless. And because there are no strict publishing deadlines with the software, schools are able to capture events late in the school year, like exams, prom and graduation and include them in their yearbook.
Despite the upside, some schools just aren't ready to fully break from tradition and begin adopting digital yearbooks altogether. Some of these schools have found success in producing a yearbook that includes a digital supplement.
Using Yearbooks Online is very simple and intuitive. Schools can choose from a variety of professionally built style templates or a custom template with their own school logo and then add thousands of photos and hours of video and music to create unique, fashionable yearbooks that can be copied to CD or DVD. In fact, Yearbooks Online is the only yearbook company that gives the schools the power to create and publish their own yearbooks, whereas other companies charge a fee to produce the CD or DVD copies.
Since launching in 1999, Yearbooks Online has established itself as the leader in digital yearbook software. Yearbooks Online is a smart, simple, stylish way to keep your cherished memories alive. Headquartered in British Columbia, Canada, Yearbooks Online is on the web at: http://www.middleschoolyearbook.co.
