The quintessential document for the Press Service International young writer program is the annual due dates sheet.
Senior writer and Panellist Aira Chlcott a retired educator, whose proclivity to such endeavours has now for three years put this together, albeit, with a little assistance from Rebecca Moore, also a senior writer and panellist.
The young writer program is set out over 50 weeks - into five sections - representing the five week Cycles.
Each of these 5 weeks has 10 article due dates throughout the year.
Coordinators
This is where the coordinators become essential - they have at their finger tips the due dates and publishing week date for each Cycle. The coordinators send to their young writer charges in their specific week a reminder when their article is due - it is sent 10 days out, 5 days out and on the due date.
There are coordinators for
Week 1 - Australians 18-30
Week 2 - Australians 18-30
Weeks 1-3 - Kiwi 18-30
Week 4 NZ senior writers
Week 4-5 - Internationals
Week 5 - Aust Over 31s
Plus
Seniors Writers
Sport
Mission
110 in all
This all accounts for 110 writers for Christian Today – all are published ‘once’ over each 5 week period.
It is all very simple - as long as young writers get their articles in on time. This is the bulwark issue for the Press Service International program to function – getting the articles in on time.
The Kiws and Internationals ‘stand alone’ - this is their third year. They have people running in all the various functionaries and all this happens under their own auspices. It works remarkable well.
Coordinator - to editor - to photo selector - to Stand Alone person to Christian Today.
The senior writers coordinator is retired barrister Gavin Lawrie who sends out the senior writer reminders as if all 30 of them have their article due dates in Week 1. Then publishing dates are slotted in for each senior writer over three weeks followed by the NZ senior writers in Week 4. In effect there are 4 weeks of senior writers.
2021 a big year
Clearly 2021 is a big year as the Kiwis and Internationals are stepping away from Press Service International in their ’Stand Alone’ and establishing their own archive web sites form their respective young writers – this is to formally illustrate they have come of age.