Well-Being Australia chairman Mark and Delma Tronson are regulars at these ARPA conferences as their media ministry "Press Service International" (PSI) provides three articles each day to Australia's Christian media along with a weekly international feed.
Their three daily articles include a Sport and Comment article written by a team of young writers and Mark himself writes a Ministry piece. These are first published in 'Christian Today Australia' and the published links are then sent out for republishing with remarkable responses from around the world.
This year Mark and Delma Tronson interviewed four delegates for the Australian Missionary News IPTV. Each annual ARPA conference they do 4-5 interviews of delegates who tell their own stories for their Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) site which are also placed on their YouTube channel.
This year was no different, Mark interviewed Frank Duracher the Salvation Army's new Warcry Editor who hails from New Orleans, the Melbourne Anglican's editor former The Age reporter Mark Brolly, then Sydney Anglican Media's Stephen Mason who is in the process of creating 'comic graphics'.
Adelaide's Caryn Rogers the editor of New Times was interviewed by Delma Tronson. Caryn is about to embark on a doctorate, already with Art and Theological degrees under her arm.
The practical components of the ARPA conference included a plenary by Reverend Dr Steve Taylor a Baptist who serves as the Masters of Ministry / Doctor of Ministry Co-ordinator at the South Australian Uniting College (Seminary) for Leadership and Theology. Steve Taylor spoke on the art and nature of "Telling Stories" with much acclaim.
This was followed by what is referred to the annual 'hot house' where four people get a chance to tell their story followed by questions, this time the subject was: "Do church newspapers cover disasters differently".
This was followed by the plenary by Professor Rick Sarre on the subject of 'defamation', which was both lucid and enormously valuable. It is clear Christian publications need to be very aware of their 'duty of care' in this critical area.
The afternoon sessions were all workshops taking into account various practical subjects including Tweeting and Social Media on the one of end of the spectrum to that of staying cool in a crisis on the other.
Saturday night 10 September were the annual ARPA awards with the 2011 Gutenberg Shield going to 'The Lutheran', moreover Mark Tronson said, a fitting award with Adelaide as the host city this year. Johannes Gutenberg invented the modern printing press. Editor Linda Macqueen said that she was appointed editor of The Lutheran 13 years ago and attended her first ARPA conference two weeks after starting in that role. She was delighted for her team that the 2011 Gutenberg award came to The Lutheran. (en.wikipedia.org)
Next year the ARPA annual conference is in Wellington, New Zealand and it is fitting that the newly elected president is New Zealand's Errol Pike after three stirling years of leadership by Australian Salvation Army's Peter McGuigan.
Mark Tronson said that every ARPA conference he comes away with one very positive outcome for his media ministry, and this year the importance of having one's antenna up as editor of so many young writers, regarding defamation issues.
The three issues in defamation are that an article has been published (including on-line, social media and Twitter), a person/s are identified and that it is defamatory, and that in defamation law (now in unison across Australia, except for one component in Tasmania) the onus is on the writer and publisher (and 'anyone else' involved in the publishing) to prove they did not defame, and not the other way round. Nonetheless, frivolous actions are quickly bought to book with their own reputations quite often left in tatters.
Mark Tronson explained that such helpful presentations along with the camaraderie of Christian publication editors and writers is the hallmark of this bountiful annual conference.
Mark said that his PSI is not a publication (as are Denominational and Non-Denominational Newspapers including on-line), rather PSI provides articles for publication in Christian Today Australia. Mark is an Associate Member of ARPA as are many free lance Christian writers.