The judges for Sing Song have been selected to preside over the three performances this weekend.

Tom Craig, director of student productions, said 30 total judges were chosen, with 10 judges assessing each show.

“Of those 10 per show, seven are what we call category judges and three are vocal judges,” he said.

Craig said a different category will be judged during each show. The Friday night acts will be judged on originality, the Saturday afternoon acts will be judged on appearance and the Saturday night acts will be judged on entertainment.

Vocals will be judged during all three shows.

“At the end of the run, the vocals score is a combination of the judges perspectives at every show,” Craig said.

He said the judges receive score sheets and each act has the potential to receive 1,000 cumulative points from the entire scoring process. He also said the highest and lowest category scores from each show are dropped as well as the highest and lowest scores from the cumulative vocal scores. Craig said the judging and scoring model is based on the Winter Olympic figure skating model.

Category winners will be announced at the end of each show, and the overall winners will be announced at the end of Saturday night’s performances.

Sing Song has had judges since the first show in 1957.

“In the early days, the judges were from the Abilene community,” Craig said, “and we still bring a portion of our judges from the Abilene community today. Our judges today are a mix of alumni, professionals from the art and entertainment sector, mostly here in Abilene, and a few members of our faculty and staff.”

Mark Jackson, assistant director of student organizations and programs and assistant Sing Song director, oversaw the selection process for the judges.

Jackson said a team of four students helped him find judges for Sing Song.

He said they began the process of selecting judges in November, and the final judge was chosen two weeks ago.

“We also try to get people that may or may not have been a part of ACU ever, but they’re people that are in the music business or in the entertainment industry, so they have a really keen eye for how things should look and how things should sound,” Jackson said.

He said the team tries to select a diverse group to bring a unique perspective.

Jackson said he tries to find at least one judge from every social club, but no more than two judges per club. He said the team also tries to select judges who have have been out of school for at least five years.

The team also selects judges who don’t have children participating in Sing Song, Craig said.

Jackson said in the three years he has been helping with Sing Song, the process of selecting the judges has gone well.

Preparations are already being made to select judges for next year’s Sing Song.