--------------------- The Permanent Adviser --------------------- It all started the summer before my Senior year in high school. My high school annual publication was due to get another adviser, the third of my high school career. I had been slowly working my way up the ladder or the annual publication, starting off as a lowly staffer/go-for, doing anything I was told to do. The following year, I was given some responsibility. I was told to do a certain number of spreads by myself. My Junior year, I was moved up to an editing position. And now, right before my Senior year, I knew I had the Editor-in-Chief position locked up, even with the new adviser coming in. That’s when it happened. It was a calm summer day and I was working out ideas for the coming year. That’s when my phone rang. It was our publication representative. He was calling to inform me that he had met with the new adviser and things looked good for next year. I was glad. I didn’t want anything to go wrong next year. That’s when he told me that our "new" adviser had five years of experience as an annual adviser and when he accepted the job, he wanted some changes for the school’s annual. At first, I thought that this was no big deal. Five years experience would be good for our staff. Then it hit me; this "new" adviser would be permanent. We wouldn’t be getting a new adviser in two years. Most people would think a permanent adviser would be a good thing, especially an experienced one. That meant someone who understood the equipment and knew what an annual was supposed to be like. Heck, we might even win an award out of it. Plus, I was told that this new adviser had worked out a discount system for us with the publisher. Great, we could have color and save a bunch of money. To anyone else this was good news; not to me. I didn’t want to have a permanent adviser. Permanent advisers tended to take over the production of the annual. The adviser became the Editor-in-Chief, when they, of all people, know that it’s the kids who should run the book. It’s mainly because they try to make you like their old annual staff, so they end up taking over. The Editor-in-Chief merely gets to put his/her name on the book. They get all the blame when they really had nothing to do with the production of the book. I knew all about permanent advisers. When I went to camp before Sophomore year, I met a bunch of other kids who were on track to become Editors of their annuals. Like us, they also had temporary advisers. The one I remember the most was Kristen McDaniels. She was a year older than I was, going into her Junior year was. She went to Lamdel High and was looking forward to becoming Editor-in-Chief that year. She was the one with the most experience and was the oldest on the staff. That year, Lamdel High got a permanent adviser. When Kristen came back to camp the next year, she told a whole different story than what the camp advisers were telling about having a permanent adviser. She said that her adviser, Mr. Raye, had pretty much taken over. All of Kristen’s ideas were disregarded. The staff worked everyday, after school, and every weekend. Kristen didn’t get to edit the spreads, didn’t get to do anything but put her name to the book. Some didn’t like it. They complained to Kristen. No one believed her that she really didn’t have anything to do with the book. That summer, she told me that she was only here at camp because she loved being with the people and didn’t want to loose here friends. She hadn’t decided yet, but she was thinking about resigning from the annual staff. For me, I was kind of glad that it was my last year, but I was determined to do everything it said in my job description. That included editing, holding staff meetings and handling staff problems. If our "new" permanent adviser didn’t like that, well that was just too bad. I had no idea how difficult things were going to be with Mr. Mason. The first day of class, I went into class prepared. I had several theme ideas, a handbook that told exactly what everyone was to be doing, and I had conversed with the principal and our publication representative about our budget and the pricing of pages. I had everything worked out. I was in class, which was sixth period, the last period of the day, practically right after the bell rang to let fifth period out. I walked into the classroom, introduced myself to Mr. Mason and proceeded to the front of the room. He didn’t even try to stop me. I soon found out why. Things were fine for the first month of school. I arranged for the staff to start working on pictures for clubs and sports while we waited for the mug shots to be delivered. Mr. Mason was fine through all of this. He was glad that we weren’t wasting the month on doing nothing. Once the mug shots arrived though, Mr. Mason was a totally different person. He told my staff that we all would be working late nights and weekends to accomplish the task of putting together the people pages. I disagreed and was not quiet about it. I told him that in no uncertain terms was he to keep my staff from their schoolwork. I knew how important it was having competent staffers and good students. That very same week that he told the staff that, he went behind my back and changed their assignments. I was livid. Here he was, not only compromising study time for the staff, but also questioning my authority. I couldn’t take it, and walked out of class so that I could calm down before confronting him. Only I never got the chance to calm down. He followed me out of class, calling, "Don’t you walk away from me! I can take this publication right out from under you for this!" I flung around and practically screamed, "You can go ahead and try to take this publication away from me, but when you do try, you’ll find that I have the backing of not only the principal, but also our publishing company." "I only thought you wanted to do as little as possible, thus being your Senior year and all." He had suddenly softened like he was my friend. "Look," I said to him, "if I wanted to do as little as possible, I wouldn’t have signed up to do the annual." "But I don’t think you realize my position in all of this. I am the adviser. Therefore, I can change any assignment you give out." "Oh, I realize that, I don’t think you realize my position in all of this. I am the Editor-in-Chief. I hand out the assignments, I edit the copy and spread design, and most importantly, I encourage my staff to not only trust my judgement, but also to believe in their own abilities. When you went behind my back and changed those assignments, you made my staff question my judgement. Your job as adviser is to advise us not to run the annual!”" I then turned and walked back to class and let him stand there and think about what I had said. I told my staff the Mr. Mason was wrong to change the assignments and they should do the assignments I had given them. After that, things changed between Mr. Mason and myself. We still argued, but he never told my staff anything without consulting me first. I did all the editing and we didn’t spend every day after school and every weekend working on the book. When the book was published and back, I was proud. Even though people complained to me because my name was on the book, I was able to tell them the way things were and how things were done because I had done them. I guess Mr. Mason was glad to be rid of me, because the next year, when I checked in with my friends, they told me a totally different story of things were being run. Mr. Mason had changed things to mimic the way things were done in his old school. I’m glad I’m not a part of that. That’s not how I want things done. I guess that’s why I went into teaching and became an annual adviser. Things are run the way I want things run, with me hardly having to put my two cents in. And I am a permanent adviser.