MEETINGS COORDINATION COMMITTEE REPORTChristopher F. Serago, PhD, Jacksonville, FL

Please Book "Within the Block" at AAPM Meetings

When you stay at a hotel while attending an AAPM meeting, there are benefits to you and to AAPM if you book a room "within the block" of hotels contracted by AAPM for the meeting.

Benefits to you:

• This year, every registrant who books a stay through the contracted housing management site for the AAPM Annual or Spring Clinical Meeting will be entered in a drawing for a complimentary registration at the 2017 Annual or Spring Clinical Meeting. (One winner will be selected at random and the winner's registration fee will be refunded after the drawing.)
• Guest room Wi-Fi is included in your room rate. While some hotel brands already include Wi-Fi as part of the room rate, other hotels charge as much as $12.95 per day.
• When you reserve a hotel room in the meeting contracted block, you will be the last to be 'walked' or relocated in an oversell situation. You may save a few dollars when reserving hotel rooms through bargain websites, but they will not protect you in an oversell situation. •Our hotels tend to be the closest to the convention center at discounted rates.

Benefits to AAPM:

• Our room block history (rooms booked and attributed to AAPM) is shared when contracting future venues. The better our room block history, the better leverage we have for lower room rates and fewer contracted penalties in the future.
• Our room block history impacts the amount of meeting space a city or venue is willing to hold as well as the cost. An excellent pick up history results in better leverage when negotiating with both hotels and convention centers for meeting space.

We know there are often attractive alternative hotels or reward programs that provide incentives. Please think twice before booking "outside the block" and we will continue to negotiate the best conventions centers and the best hotels at the best rates for future AAPM meetings. You can help us.

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