The 2016 young writers program in conjunction with Christian Today sees the end of Cycle 3 in two weeks as the crunch time for the annual Basil Sellers Awards.
The Leadership Group Young Writers met last October and worked through the Awards hoping there might be some New Zealand monies available to fund a separate award as in previous years.
The young writer program developed in 2009 has young people from Australia, New Zealand and 18 from around the world who each write one Comment article every 5th week and published in Christian Today.
The funding for the awards, initiated in 2013 are from Mr Basil Sellers AM with
$1000 for the winner determined by a set of independent panellists and two prizes of $500 for the Consistency Awards. An additional $1000 for New Zealand has now come to hand this year as in previous years.
There was a Plan B had this NZ funding not been available but that has been averted. The Basil Sellers Awards are presented at the young writer annual conference on Saturday 13 August in Sydney.
Cycles 1-5
There are four sets of six separate panellists -
Internationals
Australians
New Zealanders
Sport
These panellists mark their separate young writers in Cycles 1-5. At the end of Cycle 5 in July points are tallied by statistician John Grocott.
Past years have shown us
- In past years the young writer ahead at the end of Cycle 3 have won the Basil Sellers Award (the statistics have been this sharp).
- The panellists mark through to Cycle 5 in effect mark up to 80 articles. There is some variance depending on the number of young writers in each week.
The Panellists
The Panellists play a very important role in such a program. Some of these 2016 Panellists are now to the program – who were once young writers – and have moved to more senior responsibility.
Some Panellists have been around since the program began such as Brian Carrell (Christchurch) four years ago.,
Australian Panellists
John Skinner
Gavin Lawrie
Deidre Tronson
Eric Polis
Aira Chilcott
Vicki Nunn
New Zealand Panellists
Rt Rev Brian Carrell
Ms Liz Hay
Dr Deidre Tronson
Mr Peter Rope
Ms Tash McGill
Mr Brent Costley
International Panellists
Rev Euan McDonald
Dr Vic Matthews
Dr Deidre Tronson
Ms Sophia Sinclair
Mr Daniel Stott
Dr Nathanael Yates
Sport
Rev Peter Nelson
Simon Farrer
Andrew Bennett
Tim Wilson
David Burr
Determinations
In whatever manner these Panellists determine their points allocations over these 5 Cycles - which determines these 2016 winners - will be of interest to many, not least the young writers themselves.
The predilections one of one group of Panellists have no influence over another set of Panellists - Australia, New Zealand, International, Sport - we await with baited breath.
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