Contests ... Good or Bad?

[Flipeoke]

I not a fan of contests either, but I have hosted a couple of them at the request of the owner.(or demand rather, since I try to discourage against contests). Anyway, if contests are a must this is the way I do it:

Judges are the singers themselves. You get to vote on all the other singers (1-10 scale), but don't vote on yourself. All singers pick a slip from a hat containing a number. This determines where you are singing in the rotation. Once you sing your first song, you pick a slip again. This is so you are not singing after the same person again. (An average singer will tend to sound worse after a great singer,and an average singer will sound better after a poor singer...etc.) Third round same thing. All contestants sing three songs and must remain to the end of the contest. Contestants who leave early or do not cast a vote for each of the singers' three songs are eliminated. The lowest and highest score is dropped for each song. Scores are counted twice, my parter reads off names/scores, while I add them on a calculator, and then I read off names/scores, while he adds. We then make sure those two results match. The person with the highest score wins (or top 3 or top 5 etc...). It's not perfect, but it is the "fairest" that I could come up with.

Flip (a.k.a. Mike)