Special Trips
Being a good leader means that the people around you can trust you and lean on you. To make sure my staff members knew this, I tried to support them and be a leader outside of the classroom as well as inside.
This meant that a lot of times, I gave rides to people in the class, took time in class to talk about our personal lives, and generally built a connection outside of the book.
The video on the right is a perfect example of the environment I strive to foster among our staff. We had a softball game we needed to take pictures of, but it was super far away, and I was the only person in the class with a license. I told a group of people I would take them, and we could stop at the mall to kill some time and get coffee. We chatted and danced to music at Starbucks, and I later picked up food from Chick-fil-A for everyone since we would be out late. The day ended up being something we talk about all the time, and people are much more willing to cover events knowing that it will be a blast.
Gingerbread House
Each year, we have some sort of gingerbread day. In my freshman year (pictured on the left), we had a competition against other teams in the class, with the next-door teacher picking the winner.
After the competition, I could tell there was a lot of tension among the competitors, so in later years, I made the gingerbread day a gingerbread village day. Instead of competing against one another, Gingerbread Village Day is a time where we work together to create a beautiful Christmas scene. It went much better and is now something returning students look forward to.
After we created the village, a staff member who brought a gorilla action figure smashed the gingerbread houses while we got some epic slo-mo video. It was a lot to clean up, but everyone's reactions were priceless.
2023 was the first year we made a village together instead of the competition, and everyone had a great time working together. And yes, I got bangs.
Annual Camp
During the summer, we host a two-day camp for newcomers to the class. My adviser buys lunch, and I explain photography and the theme for the year. We start a scavenger hunt before they leave on the first day and then critique the photos the next day.
We also spend a lot of time getting to know each other and getting some of the basic things out of the way so that at the start of school, we can jump right into making the book.
After attending a special leadership session at the NCSMI during my sophomore year, I began implementing what I learned. At our camp each year, we take the love language test. While it is something silly and fun to do as a group, it also shows me the best ways to help the staff.
Race Completion Board
Each year, we struggle to motivate our staff to submit their work on time, leaving a significant gap between those who have their work done and those who don't. This means that people have to pick up the slack and focus less on their own work.
This year, we had a class of people who cared and were passionate about making the book great. We found that the first-semester deadlines were still a struggle, so I decided we needed a way to track each staff member's progress to help them meet them. I wanted to make it fun for everyone, so I asked them to send me their favorite pictures of themselves.
I found that almost immediately, the staff didn't want to look "behind," which meant they wanted to get their work done faster. It was also a way for them to visualize where they were on the path to completing their spread. The board, while in theory a small fix, ended up expediting the book-making process and helped our newer staff members understand it much better.
First Events
We have new students join the class all the time, and their first time at an event is always a hurdle for them. I always do my best to either be there for their first event or have another veteran staff member there. The same goes if an event brings anxiety to staff members. Big dances are always stressful because of low lighting and only one shot for the pictures, so I told Brian (pictured right) to get dolled up and that we would both go.
This football game was really fun. I didn't take many pictures of the game, but Kaylee got much more comfortable holding the camera. This helped me realize that sometimes it's more valuable to help your team get comfortable as photographers.
