Palu Tabulations
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Kevin Palu - Creator

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My name is Kevin Palu, and I am a vocal music director in Iowa. In my career, I have worked as a director of Emmetsburg "High Voltage", Waukee "Millennium", and now Lewis Central "Corporation". I spent 9 years as a performer in various show choirs in Nebraska before obtaining my Bachelors in Music Education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Following graduation, I moved to Iowa to begin my teaching career and immediately jumped into directing middle school and high school age show choirs as well as curricular choirs of all ages. I also work on staff at the Nebraska Show Choir Camp over the summer.


The Story of Palu Tabulations

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My first year hosting a competition in Emmetsburg, IA, in 2015, I was put in charge of the tabulations. I asked several people what the best ballot was and what I was supposed to do with the judges scores to determine awards. I received a lot of vague answers that left me confused. I knew how important it was to "get it right" when it came to the tabulations, so I made it my mission to figure things out. For the first year, I set up a few spreadsheets to do the math, and determined the award winners manually. After a few friends heard what I was up to, I ended up working with 2 other competitions that season to help with their scoring as well.

After that, I set out to learn more about the intricacies of scoring - building a judging panel, building a ballot, and determining awards in the most "fair" way possible. I changed jobs in moving to Waukee, IA, where I was able to make a lot of connections with very experienced people. I was able to have discussions with many industry experts to find out what categories are most important on a ballot, what should be avoided, and what causes confusion the most. When putting my new found knowledge to work in the 2016 season, word-of-mouth led to me helping with 13 competitions. 

As a fellow director, I had made it my goal to not tell other directors how they should be doing things, but rather just help share the knowledge I had acquired if they wanted to hear it. My goal and job was still to set up a system unique for each competition, based on the host directors wishes. That business mentality led to my competition collaborations jumping to 32 in 2017, eventually reaching the nearly 70 competitions I was able to work with in this recent 2020 season. 

I am continually learning more every year about how to fine tune the system, as well as understanding new perspectives in the competitive art of Show Choir. As a former performer, and current director, my mission will always remain helping create understanding in the scoring aspect of this art form, and creating fair outcomes for the students involved. 


© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.