Making memories: Simpson yearbook returns to campus

Megan Myers

by Rosa Gude, Special to The Simpsonian

INDIANOLA, Iowa — After eight years, the Collegiate Entrepreneur’s Organization is bringing the yearbook back to Simpson College.

Members of CEO, headed by Simpson junior Macie Heller, are preparing the yearbook for print this summer. Heller said it will be different from the last one in 2009 and will show more about Simpson life and memories.

CEO is Simpson’s business mogul group that works together each year to create hands-on business opportunities for students. It’s a newer group, Heller said, and has been around for two or three years.

They’ve started new business concepts such as the mini-golf set used at Pi Beta Phi’s 150th birthday and CEO Swap, a Facebook group where students sell anything from books to futons.

Heller said that CEO sits down at the beginning of every year to discuss ideas for ways they can expand business within the organization.

“Right now, we’re doing all of our sports pages,” Heller said. They are in the process of collecting pictures from clubs on campus, the arts and other organizations.

“We’re trying to capture real things that happen in college rather than headshots,” Heller said.

She said some bonus pages in the book will include people who turned 21, campus filters and a selfie page.

Junior Megan Myers is working on some of the Greek life and feature pages, including the 21st birthday page which will feature a picture from the night.

“I think it will be a fun page and reflects a truly special day for most people in college,” Myers said.

CEO is teaming up with Jostens, a publishing company to plan the details. Since it was their first time going through the process, Jostens talked them through publishing details and prices.

There were some struggles with finding all the organizations on campus that still exist, Heller said.

CEO sent out a survey at the beginning of the year to find out what Simpson students want in a yearbook. The survey had questions about prices and whether students wanted the yearbook to return. The survey results showed high interest in a yearbook returning to campus.

After the Simpson yearbook was discontinued in 2009, ID Magazine came out to replace it with biannual issues showing Simpson student life. After reviewing the 2009 yearbook, Heller thinks it was discontinued because of its quality and the lack of interest from the committee members.

“If you look at the 2009 yearbook, there’s a lot of white space. It was one of those things where people just weren’t interested in it anymore,” Heller said.

She said they are trying to make a quality yearbook through dedication of the creators and getting the campus involved. Heller said they are still accepting submissions through the app, Replayit, which runs through Jostens and allows students to submit their own content.

Heller said they are looking for photos from this year. Since they want to get a variety of activities in, this method would be good for the arts as they don’t have many pictures from the productions.

“If you want to be featured in the yearbook, send in your photos,” Heller said.

Although the old Simpson yearbooks were funded, these are a for-profit setup.

“We could build it as a business in the future, but for now we’re keeping it as a book,” Heller said.

The ordering deadline is May Term and yearbooks sell for $50. CEO is making it easy for all students to order since seniors can have books sent to their house.