Friend --

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Green Party will not be able to meet in Detroit for an in-person convention. On Saturday, July 11th we must instead convene 500+ attendees entirely online for an exercise in deliberative democracy that represents our party and candidates with pride.

On the surface, not having to bring hundreds of people together in rented convention facilities might seem like an enormous cost savings. And for many convention participants, not having to travel across the country and pay for meals and housing might in fact save them a significant amount of money.

But in terms of producing the convention, we must purchase access to equipment, software and services that were not required for previous conventions but are necessary to producing an online convention that:

• Is accessible to people with varying levels of access to technology, including broadband Internet
• Respects members of our community who have impaired hearing
• Aims to reach Spanish-speaking communities
• Affords delegates every opportunity to exercise their right to deliberate and vote on critical decisions as readily as they would in-person
• Presents the Green Party and our candidates to the media and general public in a way that inspires support and respect for our essential agenda.

Instead of having one stage and location to present from, we must create dozens of mini-stages across the country so everyone who appears during the convention broadcast —from the Honorary Co-Chairs to the vote reporters of each and every state party and caucus— can be seen and heard clearly and with the dignity befitting this historic moment.

And we are working to convert the campaign workshops, leadership trainings and candidate promotion opportunities Greens have come to expect at Annual National Meetings into online formats.

For these reasons, we are asking convention delegates and other Greens who normally would have attended in-person to pay a $100 registration fee to cover the costs of this extraordinary endeavor.

As with any Green Party presidential convention or Annual National Meeting, we will not turn away anyone for lack of funds. We are accepting requests for reduced registration fees, along with waiving the fee entirely when needed.

Again: we ask anyone who would have registered to attend, had this convention been held in Detroit, to pay the full $100 registration fee. And since you will not have to purchase travel, meals and lodging, consider contributing what you would have budgeted toward those costs to the Convention Solidarity fund to help cover those who are not able to pay the full registration fee.

Solidarity is the means by which we transcend hardship. We promise to make this year one that we can look back on with pride. We will make this a turning point in our party’s history and our fight for Grassroots Democracy, Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice and Non-Violence.

But we can’t do it without you!
Tamar Yager and Dee Taylor
ANM/PNC Committee Co-Chairs
Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org/

P.S. When we talk about Green Party Monthly Sustainers, we do not use the word "Sustainer" lightly. Those monthly contributions have literally sustained us during the COVID-19 crisis and will be essential to your party's health and growth during the fight for a national economic recovery program rooted in an Eco-Socialist Green New Deal and Economic Democracy! We appreciate all of our Monthly Sustainers and, if you're not one already, hope you will consider signing up today!