ASB card sales are down for the 2020-21 school year
How Leadership, Athletics and El Valedor worked to increase ASB card sales
October 24, 2020
Starting Aug. 4, ASB card sales were available for purchase at the Student Store on the MVHS website. However, due to remote learning, the price dropped to $89 instead of the $100 it had been for the last 10 years. According to ASB Treasurer Annabelle Choi, the Associated Student Body (ASB) worried there would be a lack of incentive to buy the ASB card because there will likely be no Homecoming week, Welcome Back Dance, football games or fall sports. Since ASB profits go to Leadership to put on events, cover the costs of the yearbook and some of El Estoque magazines and assist with covering athletic costs and other organizations, these programs will experience reduced funding.
The Executive Council discussed the discounted price, working out their break-even point — determining how much money they can cut from the original card price up until January without losing profit. The two first dances of the year, Homecoming and Welcome Back, are normally big incentives early in the year to buy the cards, since they are normally discounted with ASB. As a result, Choi says that they understood that discounting the ASB card itself was necessary this year.
“Initially, we thought it was only fair for the student body to pay less for ASB,” Choi said. “But we have to keep it at an amount where it’s not discounted too much [to] the extent that we won’t be able to fund the athletics department, which is currently our biggest place in terms of expenses because they have an initial budget and the school district still has to pay the people who work for the athletics department regardless of whether there are games in place or not.”
Members from the Monta Vista Andaaz help make a video in order to promote ASB Card sales. The video was sent out via Schoology email and shown at a Wednesday advisory period.
Choi says that the main reason card sales were not going to hit its normal yearly sales is that the student body may be unaware of what the card funds around campus do and what the card includes. With currently 590 cards sold so far, they have only told half of what is the norm. Assistant Principal and Leadership adviser Mike White is concerned about the many people the money helps support.
“It’s not just exclusively that we’re just paying for the yearbook,” White said. “We get offset from the district, but we don’t get the full amount that we need to pay for all of the refs for our sporting events, so that falls on the ASB card sales to make up the difference … That’s how we pay for tournaments that the athletes go to. It pays for all the publications, not just the yearbook because it helps El Estoque. It pays for all of the activities that happen — all the things that happen during homecoming, they cost money, and so that’s how we pay for it.”
Choi says those activities mentioned by White -– Homecoming and sporting events –– will resume if the FUHSD administration reopens the campus next semester. With the possibility of holding events next semester, Choi says buying the card at a discounted price, rather than at its price after January, $125, is worth it.
“We were all hopeful that we will be able to hold events that we promised the school for during election season, but I think once the first semester hit, we kind of realized that it’s not a viable thing,” Choi said. “So we’ve been trying to plan around to still fulfill our promises, but do them online. I think at this point, we’re just going to have to see what happens, we always plan for both … in person or online. It’s the best we can do at the moment.”
Aside from activities, Choi says the priority for the money goes to Yearbook first, then athletics. Junior Marvin Wu, a class officer and managing editor for El Valedor, says that he was initially worried over the lack of ASB card sales.
“I was anxious because I think when Homestead got 1,000 card sales, we only had 300, and we were lagging behind,” Wu said. “Even with the discounted price, our ASB card sales were still not the best, so that was a very anxious time for both ASB and yearbook. Because again, a lot of the money that comes from ASB card sales go to yearbook funds, and purchasing and printing.”
Wu says their goal was 500 cards sold, as it was their break-even number that helps clear the yearbook and the athletics department of debt. Now at 590, ASB card sales are approaching the new target of 750, which Choi says will put the sales at a comfortable position that can help take care of other activities and clubs.
To help reach their initial goal, ASB and leadership worked with Athletics and El Valedor to use social media to promote, while White sent emails on Schoology to students and parents. Wu says that using their Instagram to introduce the yearbook theme was essential, as he believes there may be misconceptions about this year’s design and theme.
“ASB and Leadership kind of asked Yearbook to help promote a bunch of their promotional material,” Wu said. “One big goal that we had this year was to revive our Instagram social media presence because we definitely thought that especially with remote learning, a lot of people were less interested in buying yearbooks. Because the year started off online, that might mean a lot of Zoom pictures in the yearbook, which is completely untrue.”
El Valedor posts on their Instagram a video that reveals their theme for this year’s yearbook, “Hear us out,” which was also played during a Wednesday Advisory period.
Wu said that the yearbook staff is taking socially distanced photos when possible and soliciting the rest from their sources. In the first 40 pages El Valedor has created for its first deadline, there are only two Zoom pictures.
“This year’s yearbook will be very unique out of the previous years,” Wu said.” Yearbooks traditionally our previous yearbooks have always been the same content … A lot of [this year’s book’s] content will be very current and it will cover material that is ongoing so that when you flip through your yearbook, whenever you feel like it in the next 10 to 20 years after you graduate, you will feel like you are living through a timeline of memories.
El Valedor instagram post explaining what their theme means.
Besides receiving a yearbook, Choi says another strong incentive for students should be that the card helps fund many things on campus and support people’s variety of interests at school.
“It really comes down to supporting this school as a student body,” Choi said. “Because in order for our student-athletes, or our yearbook, or anyone in clubs or any activities on campus are majorly impacted by ASB funds and there is a high chance that you are one of them. It would be best if you could purchase one. Also I really don’t see the disadvantages of it because purchasing the yearbook alone is $100 and you’re already getting the yearbook for $89, so it’s already discounted right there and the discount for bucket hats and apparel. So personally, I don’t really see the reason why you wouldn’t get it if you’re sure of getting a yearbook.”
