The Best of the Best in the young writer program is a concept drawn up by Christchurch's the Rt Rev Brian Carrell one of the New Zealand Panellists and it involves the top young writer's articles published at the end of the year.
This Best of the Best concept involves the top 5 young writers from both Australia and New Zealand where in that final Cycle of five weeks, the articles are marked by the Panellists for an end of year 'acknowledgement' award.
The Press Service International PSI young writer awards are held this Saturday on the Gold Coast at the Banora Point Baptist facilities (Tweed Heads) – awards determined by seven Australian Panellists and seven New Zealand Panellists over an eight month period.
Therefore no one knows who are the top 5 Australian young writers and the top 5 New Zealand young writers as determined by the Panellists until after Saturday's night's awards.
This end of year contest of the Best of the Best will therefore be run differently from the eight month Panellist program, in that
a) Only the top 5 Aust and NZ young writers are involved
b) All Aust / NZ Panellists are involved.
Australian Panellists
Bruce Stark
Euan McDonald
Aira Chilcott
Gavin Lawrie
Debbie Suba
Deidre Tronson
David Chang
New Zealand Panellists
Brian Carrell
Christina Tyson
Liz Hay
Peter Grace
Vic Matthews
Deidre Tronson
David Chang
A difference
This is in effect a significant difference, as it will be the first occasion when the Australian and the New Zealand Panellists will be marking unfamiliar young writers.
Likewise the top 5 Australian and top 5 New Zealand young writers will be marked by unfamiliar Panellists.
This in itself will provide much interest to the Best of the Best at the end of the year as published in Christian Today.
Creating interest
Creating additional interest is the name of the game in that as much as this ministry is unique with 72 young writers being published monthly in Christian Today providing them a 'Voice' – there are new ideas brimming forth constantly.
New Zealand young writer Sophia Sinclair, NZ CMS editor says:
"I really appreciate all who put their time and effort towards making my articles go live and allowing me a platform to have a voice. Coordination is not easy. It's often disheartening when people are late, even disrespectful. Just wanted to give you a virtual bouquet and let you know I appreciate you, Natalie Chu from Christian Today and Laura Veloso our week 3 coordinator - who put this together."
Coordination
Each Cycle has a five weeks and each week has its own coordinator and each coordinator has from 12 to 14 young writers. This is a huge effort and logistically it works well.
The coordinator Email to their respective young writer list an eight day reminder, a five day reminder and a one day reminder. The articles are due on the Tuesday prior to the week of publication. This allows the checking and editing process.
On the Friday the entire package of the following week's young writer articles are sent to Christian Today, where again, they are checked and edited.
Annual conference
This Saturday (13 Sept) at the Banora Point Baptist Church on the Gold Coast is the annual young writer conference with a full day of meetings and the evening is designated for the annual awards.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at
http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html