Team Building

↑ Itinerary for 2024 CSPA

CSPA - My Absolute Favorite

CSPA (Columbia Scholastic Press Association) is an annual journalism convention in March at Columbia University. Regulus takes part in this convention every year to start the next volume (ex. if you're attending CSPA in the March of 2023-24 school year, you are there to start preparing/thinking about the 2024-25 yearbook).

On paper, this trip is all about learning more about the yearbook and developing skills for the next year's book. In reality, though, this trip is one of the greatest opportunities for the staff to spend three days together and get to know each other more personally. From the five hours we spent in Times Square to the morning walk to Columbia University with a New York bagel in hand, this trip was full of never-ending chatter and laughter and an extraordinary experience that only the most dedicated Regulus staff get to experience.

We should… CSPA 2023

Pages and Pages of Notes

For some reason, none of the people who went to CSPA in March of 2024 can find the notes document that we took notes on :(

However, I was able to find the notes from CSPA 2023 (doc on the left).

For both CSPAs that I attended, we had a designated Google Document to take notes in. During each session, we took notes on what we thought could be used in our next year's book. These were the notes we looked back to when we were in the very beginning process of making Volume 64.

Theme Idea from CSPA

Volume 64's theme, "Every Second Counts" is connected to time, and during the process of brainstorming for theme ideas, we used our CSPA notes and gathered all time-related notes.

A lot of our book's ideas -from structure to content ideas- came from these notes and were one of the most helpful sources that we used when solidifying our theme and the book's overall structure.

I attended the CSPA in my sophomore and junior years. My first CSPA as a sophomore is one of the biggest factors why I got invested in the creation of the yearbook. As a publication that is not a class like some other schools, it is hard to fully commit to the book since we only meet once a week for less than an hour. By going to the CSPA, not only did I get to know more about other staff on the yearbook, but I learned that the world of the yearbooks is deeper and wider than I thought it was. There is way more about the yearbook than putting photos in and interviewing people. Listening to professionals and Walsworth representatives talk about ways in which anyone can enhance the book's quality gave me the motivation to design a better spread and contribute more to the book.

Aoba, Polina, and Tali at NSPA with matching regulus merch. Photo by Mia.

NSPA

I was only able to attend one JEA/NSPA journalism convention during my high school years. But one day was enough to capture the energy and understand the pleasure of being able to attend NSPA. Not only do I get a day off from school in the middle of the week, but I get to learn so much in just a day. The sessions that NSPA has are very similar to the sessions of CSPA, and so since CSPA only happens once a year and requires effort to get there, NSPA, being held in Boston, was a great way to refresh our knowledge.

Recruiting New Staff

In June of 2024, we attended the club fair held for incoming freshmen. We made our poster and brought out our book so the students could see what kind of yearbook we made. We also played our CSPA vlog on our computer as a way to attract more people.

There was another club fair in September, which any student at South was able to attend. We had the same setup as the June club fair. That day, we had more than 70 people sign up for Regulus (if students were interested, we made them write their name and email on a piece of paper so we could contact them later with more information).

Although more than half the students who sign up for Regulus at these club fairs end up never showing up, it is one of the most effective ways to recruit new staff.

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