The SNO Report: Year-End Best Practices

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Because it’s the end of May and you are a journalism adviser, you are probably thinking about summer, and we respect that, but we’d like you, for just a moment, to think about SNO.

Why? At the end of the school year, it’s important to complete a few quick tasks to be sure that your SNO site is ready to go when you return to school in the fall.

  • Make all student users of your site subscribers. The seniors did a great job while they were here; now it is time to pass the baton. To retain all stories written by students who won’t be on staff next year, but eliminate their ability to access the site, we recommend that you change all student user accounts tosubscribers over the summer. When students return in the fall, you can grant access back as needed. If you chose to delete the user accounts of those graduating, be sure to assign the content to another author so that it isn’t deleted.  If the content is deleted, it is not retrievable.  If you have a couple of dedicated staff members that could post a story or two per week on the site, feel free to keep their accounts active, so that readers from around the country can find up-to-date news on your site, even in the summer.

  • Update your site.  Before you leave for the summer, check that your site is running the most up-to-date version of WordPress.  Also check your plugins and theme, a quick update now can protect your site over the summer and give you less updating to do in the fall. Speaking of site protection, it might be a good idea to set up a reminder to check for updates once a month, all year round.

  • Send your students out the door thinking about how they can earn some badges as a part of the SNO Distinguished Site program next year.  Looking at the requirements now sets your staff up to start creating habits that will help them earn the honor of Distinguished Site as soon as applications are accepted in January 2016.

  • Think ahead.  The SNO Patrol conducts hour-long personalized training sessions for advisers and staffs. Order a training session now and schedule it whenever makes sense for you (before the end of the school year, this summer, or even next fall). The variety of training sessions available mean that all staffs, from beginners to SNO experts, will get something out of it, including a staff that’s ready to make use of all that the SNO FLEX design offers.

  • Keep us in the loop. Are you getting out of the jouro biz? Retiring? Please let us know so that we can welcome the new adviser in proper SNO style.

  • There is still SNO in the summer. This summer the SNO Patrol will be adding more features to our FLEX theme.  Look for new preset style starters, live widget previews, and a new story page template for pro/con opinion pieces.  There’s more in the works,too, but we’re going to keep that a secret until the fall.

As always, we want to express our sincere appreciation for letting us build and support websites and features for you and your staff.  We hope that you enjoy your summer break, and we look forward to another great school year.

Sincerely,

The SNO Patrol