Each year Press Service International presents awards at its annual conferences to those young writers whom a group of Panellists mark their articles.
That sounds very simple, the issue is that there are different groups of young writers and each of those groups have a bunch of panellists – five panellists in each.
Let me understand this
Australians 18-30 years - one group of young writers
Kiwis 18-30 - a second group of young writers
Internationals 18-30 - a third group of young writers
Sport - a fourth group of young writers
Over 31s Australians - a fifth group of young writers
Over 31s Inter’ls and NZ - a sixth group of young writers
Where do the panellists fit
There are six separate groups listed above. Each of those groups have allocated five people who serve as panellists.
5 panellists for Aust 18-30
5 panellists for Kiwis 18-30
5 panellists for Internationals 18-30
5 panellists for Sport writers
5 panellists for Aust Over 31s
5 panellists for Inter’ls / NZ Over 1s
How do the Panellists do their thing
In 2020 the Panellists role has become much more simple. This year the young writers send in what they consider to be their BEST article between January and July. That is one selected from the five they have written.
In July the panellists in their groups mark only what each young writer in their group considers their BEST article. That will be in early July.
It was a constant search for panellists when each panellist was required to mark each and every article and then a statistician collated the points. But in 2020 is has become a much more simple process, whereby the panellists only mark ONE article from the young writers in each group.
Set out an example
Let us take the Kiwi young writers – 18-30 age group.
Jessica McPherson
Matthew Thornton
Rebecca Hoverd
Sunny Kang
Rebecca Howan
Barry Kirby
Ethan Miller
Jessica Knell
Caleb Haurua
Richard Kwon
Blake Gardiner
Kate Tooke
Kevin Park
Araina Pereria
Manuele Teofilo
Harrison Bellve
Chanell Diaz
Total 17
In July each of these Kiwi young writers will send in what they each consider to be their BEST article.
Those 17 articles are then collated and sent to the five Kiwi Panellists
Brian Carrell - NZ Anglican Bishop Ret.
Christina Tyson - fmr NZ Salvation Army Media head
Liz Hay - retired Editor
Wayne Graham - editor of NZ Daily Encourager
Sarah Richards - former Bible Society Editor
Then what happens
The five NZ Panellists send their respective marks to the statistician who collates and does the count. There are various awards as to the marking outcomes.
NZ Basil Sellers Award
NZ Tronson Consistency
NZ Theology
NZ Youth Development
The same applies to each group with a different set of panellists.
The 2020 awards will be presented at the PSI annual young writer conference on Saturday 12 September on the Gold Coast - adjacent to the Gold Coast Airport, Living Temple Christian Church (Tugun Baptist).
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.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at
