The welcome speech from Jill Robinson, Branch Chair, for the Poppies Booksellers and Central Districts Short Story Awards.

Welcome everyone. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jill Robinson and I'm the chair of the Central Districts Branch of the NZSA. Thank-you for coming along today. And thank-you to Hastings District libraries who are hosting us this afternoon. An especial welcome to our competitors and their supporters, to representatives of our sponsors,and to our judges, Sue McCauley and Anna Mackenzie who will, in a moment be announcing the results of their deliberations.

Any competition, whether artistic, sporting, or business, takes time and money to organise and run. So a big thank-you to our principal sponsors this year, Poppies Booksellers. It was their willingness, early in the year to support our endeavours that provided the impetus for our committee to pursue the competition. We have been fortunate in securing sponsorship from several other businesses: Spec Savers, Hastings, John Craven and Associates, Land Surveyors, Gary Bernsten Accounting Services, Cathrynes State of Grace, Jackie Rutherford who arranged for the printing of our posters during her holidays and last, but by no means least, Reading Cinemas who provided the two for one movie vouchers to each YA entrant. This proved to be very popular. The vouchers were posted out this week.

Please remember our sponsors and support us by supporting them!

To everyone who took the time to enter : Thank you. There would be no competition without you. It is a major achievement to put a story together and to meet the deadline that goes with a competition. Whether or not you were successful this time around we hope you keep writing, and we hope you will support us again in the future.

The success of the competition also depended on people power. From the design of the posters and their distribution across the region, to keeping information current on our Facebook page, the NZSA website and on our blog, to receiving and collating the entries and the pre-judging, the tasks at times seemed multitudinous and we couldn't have done it without the help of each and everyone of you who lent a hand. My especial thanks go to our small but hard working committee, Anna Mackenzie - author, Adele Broadbent and Carmel Hurdle.