The 2012-2013 editorial staff of the Lewis-Palmer yearbook flew off to San Francisco, California this April to boost their stellar reputation. The spring JEA/NSPA conference, which took place at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis from April 25-28, which involves everything yearbook.

The Look at us Now Westwind book from 2011-2012 took 6^th place in the Best in Show category. The book also got a critique by Paul Ender; an editor of the book’s publishing company, Herff Jones.

Ender said the book was beautiful and crown-worthy, which is an award that is won at the national level. The 2010-2011 Westwind book, Amplified, won a silver crown.

The yearbook staff attended many pre-convention workshops offered by Herff Jones.  The conference offered sessions on yearbook, newspaper, broadcast, online publishing, and more. The seminars involved coverage ideas, theme brainstorming, how to edit pages, and how to be a good editor.

“I became a lot closer to all of the kids on staff; we escaped from the pressure of the yearbook room. It was nice to get to know everyone as individuals not as staff members,” Editor-in-Chief Alex Vasser said.

Bonding among the yearbook staff involved simply being classy tourists. They visited Fisherman’s Whorf, Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square, Chinatown, and the conference held a social event/ dance.

Kids all over the nation who attended the conference joined together at the dance. It was a way to mix the interaction for all of the journalism lovers. The JEA/NSPA brought together all kinds of these students as a whole and each staff as a strongly- bonded team.