Royal Purple Training Manual

At the end of the School Year (Working on the next year’s book):

• Meet with Publisher to discuss the details of the book for the next year (size, page number, print number, special requests, ect.).
• Work with the previous Editor-in-Chief and (previous and new) business manager to prepare the budget.
• Establish an Editorial Board.
• Assist Editors in gaining their staff.
• Train new staff on the design program and photography.

During the Summer:

• Lay out the master ladder.
• Establish and plan a theme.
• Create layouts for all pages (including font types and styles).

At the beginning of the School Year:

• Meet with Publisher to discuss the company’s needs from you, their strengths and abilities, and ultimate deadlines.
• Meet with your advisor to discuss his/her role for your book.
• Establish deadlines for entire year and enforce them to the staff.
• Work with the business manager to maintain a budget, make regular payments to publisher, and business office (for mailing and bookstore expenses), and a schedule of honoraria. Before each scheduled honoraria distribution, verify that the editors have completed the tasks required for that time frame.

Throughout the School Year :

Each Block:

• Attend the monthly Media Board meeting.
• Review the business report with the business manager.
• Lead the weekly editor’s meeting (at least three times per block), during which you should check in with each editor to see if they have any concerns, and discuss how the book is coming together as a whole.
• Establish a weekly time that you will be in the office available to help the staff.
• Check The Royal Purple mail box weekly.
• Check in with your Publishing Rep to ensure that all is well on their end.

Before each deadline:

• Do a final copy-edit of each page for grammatical and stylistic errors.
• Once errors have been corrected, submit each page in accordance with procedure of the publishing company

Toward the End of the School Year:

• Toward the end of the year, meet with the new Editor-in-Chief and (new and previous) business managers to create a proposed budget for the upcoming year.
• Train the new Editor-in-Chief.

Business Manager

At the end of the School Year (Working on the next year’s book):

• Work with the previous Editor-in-Chief, new Editor-in-Chief and previous business manager to prepare the budget.

At the Beginning of the School Year:

• Make sure the current balance equals the balance held in the business office. (At times there may be transactions over the summer that go unnoted by the absence of The Royal Purple staff.)
• Re-enter the budget appropriations according to the new year’s budget.
• File all old receipts and put them in The Royal Purple office that has been designated for past year’s receipts.
• Meet with the Editor-in-Chief to determine a schedule of honoraria.

Throughout the School Year:

• Before each scheduled honoraria distribution, meet with the Editor-in-Chief to verify that the editors have completed the tasks required for that time frame.
• Check mail for bills, receipts, and checks in an orderly manner to insure that all payments and deposits are made promptly.
• Create a monthly financial statement that is reviewed by Media Board; this is due to the Business Office representative two days before each monthly Media Board meeting. Make sure that the balance in the ledger equals the balance in the business office.

Toward the End of the School Year:

• Toward the end of the year, meet with the Editor-in-Chief (previous and new) to create a proposed budget for the upcoming year.
• Train the new business manager and make sure he/she meets with the Business Office representative.

Photo/Copy Editor

• Learn the functions of the cameras available.
• Learn the features of the available photo-editing programs on the computers.
• Train staff on photography basics.
• Review each page for picture quality and consistency.
• Acquire pictures as requested by section editors.
• Acquire miscellaneous pictures of campus life.
• Work with the Editor-In-Chief and the editor staff to establish style guidelines .
• Promptly review each page as it is completed for consistency with the rest of the book, grammar, spelling, etc. Return the edited page to the appropriate editor for revisions. Repeat as necessary. Show the final draft to the Editor-in-Chief for final review.
• Attend weekly editor meetings .

Sections Editors

In Preparation for the Year:

• Gather and maintain a staff
• Create a ladder for your section which reflects the wide range Cornell has to offer in your specific topic

Throughout the Year:

• Gather the content needed for each page. This may include contacting student organizations, college offices, individual students, parents, or other outside resources in person, by phone, or by e-mail.
• Alert the photo editor, Editor-in-Chief, and photographers to pictures needed with sufficient notice.
• Create pages that are consistent both within your section and within the entire book, on a timely basis according to the established deadlines, in accordance with the established style guidelines, and submit them to the copy editor for review with sufficient time before the deadline.
• Attend weekly editor meetings and any other training/planning meetings.

Royal Purple Staff Job Descriptions

Photo/Copy Editor

The photo/copy editor is responsible for collecting, scanning or downloading, and organizing all photographs needed for the yearbook. They should review each page for picture clarity, positioning, and quality. They must maintain a regular schedule or method for contact with the section editors and must attend all editor meetings. The photo/copy Editor is also responsible for checking each page for spelling and grammatical errors as well as for consistent and appeasing layout. They must maintain a regular schedule or method for prompt review and return of pages and must attend all editor meetings.

Section Editors

All section editors are responsible for the success and publication of their division of the book, including selecting, maintaining, organizing, and training a staff, gathering material for their section from internal and external sources, designing a ladder of content for their pages, and producing and submitting pages to the Editor-in-Chief according to deadlines and in a timely fashion. Each page represents several hours of collection, organization, and arrangement with different busy times of the year, depending on the content of their section. Each section is 35-55 pages of the final book. They must also attend weekly editor meetings.

• Clubs & Organizations – covers Cornell’s multiple clubs, organizations, honorary societies, and other student groups
• Features – creates year-in-review pages which summarize major events of the year.
• People – creates the identification (sometimes “mug-shot”, sometimes dorms) pages of students at Cornell
• Seniors – sets up Senior pictures and creates pages using these picture and information about the seniors
• Sports – summarizes the accomplishments of Cornell’s athletic teams
• Student Life – covers important events that establish the identity of life on the Hilltop