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So I have a question for no one in particular. Though if you're a con coordinator, it would help. What responsibilities do con coordinators have towards their judges? If the judge wants to play, should the coordinator do what he can to make sure he gets to play? Or should he focus on the other aspects of the con, leaving the judge to fend for himself?
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I'm the local organizer for my area and I let the other judges fend for themselves. It's worked well so far. Though when it comes to con organization, I generally try to find out how many sessions they are wanting to GM as early as possible, so I know how hard to lean on people who say 'however many you need me for is fine' or if I need to look for help outside our normal group.
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It depends on the convention and the coordinator. Essentially, it is left to their own decisions. If they mistreat their GMs poorly, they will have difficulty recruiting.
With that said, if this is an issue between you and a local con coordinator, you need to address it with them and keep it off the public message boards.
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With our con up here in Minnesota, Con of the North, we basically ask our pool of local judges who wants to judge for us, and how much they are willing to judge.
Then we assign them to scenarios and time slots.
Typically it is up to the judges to figure out what to do with their down time.
Just like Gen Con and Paizo Con, if I want to play a particular scenario in a slot I'm not judging, it isn't up to Mike to find me a seat.
Its up to me to register and buy a ticket with Gen Con or Paizo Con.
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Well, I was just trying to get some opinions. And from what it looks like, I will probably stop judging. And for the record, I have tried exactly what Brock has suggested. I even gave myself a few weeks to think about it. So i decided to get everyone's feedback. Which is I was wrong for expecting anything. Thank you all anyway.
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Amazing Red
I think a lot depends on the size of the CON and if there are other benefits. As Mike said - treat your GMs badly and you might lose them.
I'm organizing a small CON. 2 slots, approx. 10 tables total. For this I give GMs who GM one slot a choice for the second slot.
But I have to add - these GMs don't get any other benefits apart of free entry from the organizer. I also can do this because there is no pre-booking.
And I got MASSIVE flag online as organizer when I posted I would take pre-reservation / preferred treatment. Someone - not even a Pathfinder player - took offence as he felt it wasn't fair towards the paying customers. This was perceived as 'knowing the secret handshake' and elitism and an exclusion of new players.
This incidence nearly stopped me from organizing as I felt - why do I do this if all I get is insults. Luckily the organizers spoke out in favour of the way I handled it.
And I never have send back a single player.
If you are at a large CON with a prebooking system then often the organizers can't give a GM preferred treatment. Another issue is games with limited space.
I was at a CON where the organizer used a random draw to assign the spaces to a special event. One GM - not getting a place - felt not fairly treated. I do understand this - but there has to be done a difficult choice once you are overbooked.
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As a con coordinator I feel I have a responsibility to my judges to make sure they have a good time. This may include judging all slots and it may not. For me, it really is decided on a person to person basis. But then, pretty much all of the judges are also my friends so that may change the equation a bit from your typical coordinator/judge dynamic.
I recently ran a mini-convention at my local game store; 6 slots averaging 5 tables per slot. None of the judges I recruited ran more than 5 slots (as did I myself btw). Those that ran that many slots I will make sure get compensated later, probably by me running or scheduling a particular scenario for them that I know they want to play. Wise coordinators know not to push their judges too far - but I also know who I can really count on in a pinch. Many of their goals align with my own - namely, increasing the quality of gameplay in the local region. Sometimes that means they step up and run when a table of newbie walk-ins come in as they don't want to see them turned away. Sometimes it means they encourage others to judge so they can play and help the new judges at the same time.