The Queensland borders opened three days ago, 10 July and this means the 2020 Press Service International’s young writer conference in conjunction with Christian Today can go ahead on Saturday 12 September.
Each interstate young writer will need to fill in a declaration they have not been in Victoria, plus they will have a letter verifying the conference and its venue.
Again the conference is planned so that the young writers can fly into the Gold Coast airport and then fly back out early evening.
The 2020 conference will be held at the Living Temple Christian Church (Tugun Baptist) adjacent to the Gold Coast Airport - with the program something like this
Program
9.45am
Devotional – Dr Mark Tronson
10.00am Plenary 1
Maximizing on-line writing ministry (on going from last year)
11.00am morning tea
11.30am - Plenary 2
Our ministry in the community
12.30pm lunch
1.30pm - small groups
2.30pm - whole group discussion
3.30pm - afternoon tea
4.00pm annual awards
5.00pm close
One time in the year
This is the one time each year the young writers get together - Internationals, Kiwis and Australians - with Victoria locked down, and 2 months away, who knows whether the Victorians will get to the conference.
Already young writers from Sydney have advised they are coming and will meet their own air fares – although Mark and Delma Tronson raise monies for $100 for young writer air fare scholarships to assist those costs.
This year there has been a call for small groups followed by a whole group session - young people want their say and moreover in a small group context how they go about their articles for Christian Today.
Annual awards
The annual awards are a highlight and the system changed this year following the ARPA model whereby each young writer selects their BEST article, and the Panellists mark that one article and not the five from January to July as was the case in previous years. This has made the role of the Panellists a lot easier.
An additional Award category has been included, the Senior Writers – Post Over 31s. Aira Chilcott were concerned that those moved from the Over 31s into senior writers missed out on the Awards.
Each of the groups for marking have 5 panellists – seven groups = 35 panellists in the program.
Well-Being Australia - one of its ministries is Press Service International the young writer ministry - is raising tax deductible monies for the air fare scholarships - Donation link - https://writerspen.com.au/bushorchestra/Donate.html
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. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand. Dr Mark Tronson’s Press Service International in 2019 was awarded the Australasian Religious Press Association’s premier award, The Gutenberg. In September 2020 Summer Moore presented her commission portrait of Dr Mark Tronson holding the Gutenberg plaque. The above photo is the upper part from this portrait.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at: http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html
