These Awards will be presented at the 5 September young writer mini-conference in Melbourne at the 2Pocket Fair Trade Espresso Bar. The young writers awards falls within (WBA) Well-Being Australia's community mentoring initiatives.
The first was their '1 minute' video after last year's ARPA conference in Wellington, New Zealand for Christian print media. Belinda Croft and Laura Veloso are two of the 50 Press Service International young writers who write a monthly article for Christian Today and attended their first ARPA conference. (www.youtube.com)
In January this year it was announced that Mr Basil Sellers AM had endorsed a $1000 annual award for a young writer in the Press Service International (PSI) young writer project with Christian Today along with two minor prizes for the runner up Australian $300 and New Zealand $300 young writers. The video of the awards were launched in March. (au.christiantoday.com)
A Panel of seven agreed to read "each-week-day" the two young writers articles (4-5 minutes over a cuppa) and give each article a score out of 10.
The Panellists
Reverend Peter Nelson - Canberra – AIS Chaplain
Debbie Suba - Launceston - former missionary
Eric and Alyson Smith - Melbourne – Ret. Corporate
David Chang - Sydney - Christian Today
Brian Carrell - Christchurch NZ - Ret. CMS
Christina Tyson - Wellington NZ - Editor War Cry NZ
Dr Deidre Tronson - Sydney - Well-Being Australia
This Basil Sellers $1000 is the first such award for the PSI young writer project. It follows other Basil Sellers supported projects after Basil and I first met in 1988 at the Bi-Centennial Cricket Dinner in Sydney. Basil Sellers was the host of the table in which I was assigned as the Australian Cricket Team chaplain and our philosophies in Christian service fitted hand in glove.
PSI Ministry
The PSI young writer program was established in 2008 and today there are 50 young writers, 32 are from Australia and 18 New Zealand (6 of these Australian and New Zealand young writers live overseas - the International young writers).
They each write one article a month in a five week program which has enjoyed significant readership through Christian Today and elsewhere as many get re-published. The key purpose of the young writer program is to provide these young writers with a "Voice" as the next generation of key note leaders in their fields of endeavour.
Christian Press / Media Award genre
The $1000 and the two $300 awards are an encouragement by Basil Sellers to the winners to further develop their writing skills and as a valid acknowledgement of their writing endeavours for their CV.
The largest professional Christian media prize was initiated in 2012 (last year), which is $10,000, a combined effort by SPARC, Christian Media Australia and the Pilgrim Foundation focusing on radio, television, digital media, film and the video genre. (christianmedia.org.au/index.php)
The Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA) focuses on the written press, their top award is the Gutenberg, a large shield with a distinguished 30 year history. New Zealand's Julie Belding received this award in 2012. ARPA have many other specific category awards acknowledged by certificates. http://www.arpanews.org/
The 2013 young writers mini-conference the evening of Thursday 5 September and morning of Friday 6 September coincides with the annual ARPA conference (focusing on the written press) which runs from lunch 6 September through to morning worship on Sunday 8 September. 2013 will be my wife Delma's and my 6th ARPA conference.
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 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 www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html
