Depends on how you define "fair," and the same argument can be made of exhibitors and other specialty groups - with the added wrinkle that you would also need to determine how many events would qualify someone, etc. Some of those have their own hotel block, some don't.

And there's the further complication that we don't know who GMs are yet, since event submission is still ongoing, and we need to complete event review and placement before we know what final schedules will be like. We can't easily move housing registration to after that or move event placement before housing, so scheduling simply doesn't make it viable.

For GMs, we do have a dedicated housing block, but it's intended for use as a fall-back if you aren't able to secure other housing, basically, and for complimentary rooms so that a gaming group doesn't need to shoulder the up-front costs of their rooms.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Is the 2016 Hotel Request Form available yet? I can't seem to locate it, although it's referred to in the EHP.

It has not been updateed for 2016 yet, no.

Hotel requests aren't due until May and can't be requested until events are Active anyway, so it's too soon to send the details in, honestly.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Ok, It's April 26. any chance we can get the form so we can have it prepped for delivery?

Patience.  I suspect they're focused on event review before the catalog release and the (very shortly thereafter) event registration.  Those have deadlines in the next two weeks that affect tens of thousands of people.  We have a deadlines in the next two months that affect dozens of people.  It's a triage decision.  They've always had the GM block form up with more than sufficient time and have had plenty of notices through the boards and e-mail to make sure that everyone who should know about it does.

It's up & available now, btw. I pushed the deadline back to June 1 to make sure everyone can get their stuff sorted.

Sorry for the delay.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Do I need a GM badge if I am not staying in the hotel block?  I'm conducting a tour/genealogy event on Friday, August 5 which is sold out!  I am new to this and couldn't locate an FAQ list.

You don't strictly need a GM badge for anything. You do need a valid badge to get into the convention, yes, but you don't specifically need it to be a GM badge, per se. Plenty of people run events with attendee or exhibitor or press badges.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

just making sure we shouldn't have heard about GM hotels yet?

Nope - GM hotels won't be allocated until well into June, most likely, so it'll be a bit before anyone should get an update on that.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Do GM badges not allow us entry into the (regular) housing registration?  My purchased badges just got refunded, and I can no longer access the housing portal.

Email your account details to customerservice@gencon.com and they should be able to sort out your housing links - that happens whenever any badge is refunded, since reservations are linked to specific badges.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Derek, is there a 2017 hotel request form we should be filling out to submit, or is that part of the June allocation?

Roger Snow
Rogue Judges

Yes - the hotel request form has been linked form the Host page for a few months now, actually.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC