Sport writers Josh Hinds who writes the Monday 'International Sport' column and serves as a school chaplain in SE Queensland (and along with Laura his wife) run a high tech IT business put together a site whereby each of the young Sport and Comment writers can upload themselves their own articles within a "CV type" web presence.
This was just one of the many highlights of the mini-conference which commenced with Christian Today's editorial staff giving a philosophical explanation for their Biblical theme from Matthew 5 verse 37, "Let your yes be yes, and your no, no".
A history of Christian Today Australia was presented along with a detailed account of future direction and how the young Sport and Comment writers contribution was having a positive effect.
Clayton Hinds, the political writer for Christian Today Australia gave an in-depth account of the statistical methodologies they could put in place to develop a loyal readership. Mr Hinds explained that on-line "hits" only gave a portion of the story as articles were copied to other sites and into hard copy magazines, bringing one along as an example, to show the group.
Dr Mark Tronson the Chairman of Well-Being Australia presented a Devotional from Habakkuk 2 verse 2 on "running with the vision" and noted that vision does not depend on where they might fit or what they might do.
He listed the young Sport and Comment writers "where we fit" as:
Married with children, Married without children, Multi-Racial marriages, singles, step-mums, single mums, multi-cultural.
He listed "what we did" as: Scientists, IT people, Ministers and Missions, home makers, unemployed, professionals, part time workers, students, self employed, volunteers, school teachers, bankers, media associations, white and blue collar and new graduates.
"Vision is not dependent on where we fit in or on what we do", Mark Tronson expressed, rather "vision depends upon a willing and open heart to the Lord".
After lunch the Sport and Comment writer groups met separately where they discussed and raised issues associated with their respective arenas. The editorial staff spent half the time with the young Sport writers and the other half with the young Comment writers, responding to many questions.
Andrew Foran from Melbourne has taken on the responsibility of co-ordinating the young Sport writers while the Comment writers were interested in such things as the depth of theology in their writings, editing, and the nature and style of their writing: Columnist, Comment or Mission / Evangelism.
These Young Sport and Comment writers came from Perth, Tasmania, Melbourne, Cairns, Canberra, Sydney, Central Coast, Tweed Heads, Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast. Amazingly only four could not attend this year.
The current Press Service International (PSI) web site is psi.bushorchestra.com The new site will come into play by the middle of June. Dr Mark Tronson is looking for five additional young men (20-30 age bracket) to lift the total number of Comment writers to 20. Currently there are 6 young men and 9 young women. Young men interested please contact Dr Tronson: timeout@bushorchestra.com
