The Press Service International annual awards are tomorrow (Saturday) 1 August in Sydney.
Writing on behalf of the Leadership Group Young Writers - this overview was presented by Sophia Sinclair to the young writer team. The Leadership Group is Russell Modlin (Sunshine Coast - Chairman), Laura Veloso (Melbourne), Sophia Sinclair (Christchurch NZ), Wes Tronson (Gold Coast), Sam Gillespie (Sydney).
In just a few years the PSI Young Writers' Program has gone from publishing a handful of young writers to coordinating and publishing 85 young writers from New Zealand, Australia and beyond – all within a five week cycle.
This is exciting growth - but poses the question: what is the vision for the future of this ministry? Our annual conference aims to explore this question with valuable insight from the young writers — the fearless collective of (mostly) "Gen Y" writers in PSI.
Sophia Sinclair writes: Come along for an interactive day of great discussion, useful tips and tricks, networking and sharing as we explore our voice as a collective of young writers.
MORNING TEA 10am -
Petersham Baptist Church, 13 The Boulevard, Lewisham (Sydney)
FIRST SESSION 11am –12.30pm
11.00-11.15: Devotion (Dr Mark T) – 15 mins
11.15-12.30: Vision statement development part one – 'understanding the journey' (Russell Modlin and Laura Veloso)
- Icebreaker?
- Describing the journey so far
- Who are we serving, who are the stakeholders?
- Christian Today (David Chang) – 5 min talk, 10 min questions
- Where we're at now
- Where we're at in the market
- What gains we've made
- Description of roles and outline of process (Sophia Sinclair)
LUNCH - chicken, chip and salad lunch
- Encourage people to get a feel of where people are from, what they do etc.
SECOND SESSION 1.15–4pm
- Vision statement development part two – 'what we are about' (Russell Modlin) 1.15- 2.15pm (or longer? Must finish by 2.45pm)
- Crafting a statement
- Working in groups
- Group feedback
- Writing Comment Skills Workshop (Sophia Sinclair) (2.45pm-3.45pm)
- Using different story prompts to craft angles
- The difference between devotional and comment writing
- Story development and ideas
- Group discussion and feedback
- Devotion to finish (Dr Mark T) 15 mins (3.45pm)
Afternoon tea 4pm
Awards 4.30pm
6.00pm - Dinner/hang out - hot pizza delivered
Features
The 'awards' session will include an update by Auckland's Jared Diprose on the Mosaic Art Workshop which he introduced and initiated after last year's conference followed by him losing an eye in an industrial accident in October and being married in March this year.
Jared is bringing over a wood created bowl as a presentation to Mr Basil Sellers AM., for his untiring support of the PSI young writer program.
We will hear from David Goodwin on ARPA and an update by Josh Hinds on C.A.R.D. (Christian Article Registry Depository).
Another feature of this year's annual awards conference is that we have designated a name for our fellowship dinner. It's a memorial to the late Mr Tony Dunkerley who spoke at a number of these young writer conferences. 'Tony Dunkerley Dinner'. This is a link to a short video interview young writer Jeremy Dover did with Tony for the Australian Missionary News IPTV.
Press Service International young writer program with Christian Today which is the 3rd largest Christian News provider in the world is a daily highlight for its readers.
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