FOR several weeks now The Gympie Times has been working on a special and highly controversial annual project which will be rolled out on our website, in the digital edition ePaper starting this Saturday.

2019 POWER 30: The Gympie region’s most influential #1-30

The 2020 Gympie Region’s Power 40 will be a subjective list of local people with power and influence, chosen and ranked - by a special committee - from a much larger masterlist.

SPORTS POWER 20: The new faces on the 2020 list

Being a subjective list, not everyone is going to agree with every name and ranking. There may be some names that are not on the list you believe should be on the list. There may be some names on the list you think should not be there.

POWER 30 2019: Who moved up the Gympie list

We hope there is plenty of discussion and respectful debate around this year’s Power 40 - an expanded list from the usual Gympie Power 30 - which has some interesting additions and absences.

Without giving too much away I can say compared to our previous list of the region’s Most Influential, this year is more diverse.

It is comprised of people from all walks of life, ages and backgrounds.

It is important to remember this will be a list of men and women who have power and influence, not necessarily who deserve power and influence, nor who we wish were in power and or had influence. Some use their power for good - others not so much, depending on your point of view.

Those on this list live in the Gympie region, with just one or two exceptions for people who still have homes or offices here and whose influence cannot be ignored. It all starts this Saturday right here on The Gympie Times website.