Venue & Accomedations

Venue
The meeting location is at the Historic YWCA Building, within 4 blocks of
the University of Arizona.  The YWCA building is currently owned by a
private individual, who rents to theatre groups, the Audubon Society,
private counselors, the YWCA, the Sonoran Desert Protection Coalition,
and to groups who meet there, such as the Green Party of Pima County, the
Sierra Club, etc.

For $400/day the YWCA offers:

A. Auditorium  (This is where we'd have plenaries, and once included a
    swimming pool and gymnasium, back in the day, but now is floored over and
    houses the theatre group.)
B. One decent sized conference room
C. Three little rooms available, approx 12X15 feet,  for 20 people or less
D. Vestibule to the auditorium, just an open area.

To rent additional spaces we could talk to other tenants of the building,
or go to nearby facilities (1-4 block walk).  Price depends on room size,
date, and duration of use.  We will also ask local affinity groups if
they would like to host caucus meetings.  For example, WingSpan, the
local center for GLBT is just down the street, and the University of
Arizona Campus Greens will want to host the Youth Caucus.

For the convention space/ auditorium there are about 300 chairs. 190 of
them are nice and cushioned, the rest fold up.  There are only 10-12
tables, so we will have to rent the rest.   Table size 30" x 6'.  Tables
rent at about $8/ day, for an 8' table, plus $25 flat for delivery and
pickup.

Re: Microphones and amplifier. His system will support 13 mikes.  The
owner doesn't have any mikes now but is planning to buy 4 in the near
future, so we would have to rent the rest.  They rent at $25 @/ day with
$100 for a mixer, if his isn't adequate (although it looks to be.)  $25
flat surcharge for delivery/ pickup.

There is no computer room and he has no computers. But a small room could
be set up to be one. Two phone lines are available, if we run makeshift
lines into the available room.  More could be added, but that would cost.
 We need to have a better idea of how the lines would be used to know
what we should be asking.

Document printing:  A small copy place around the corner recently closed,
so we would be ferrying printing off site, approx 1 mile away.

Housing

Housing includes several options, two within 5 blocks, and two within a short
bus ride (approx 1 mile) away.

Dorms
Dorm rooms are available at the following rates:
$29/night/single, $42/night double -  full service rate;
$22/night/single, $36/night/double -  limited service rate,
$19/night/single, $28/night/double -  basic service rate).  (Full
service includes all bedding, towels, etc., and the room is made prior
to arrival.  Limited service is bedding, towels, etc. in the room, but
participants make their own bed.  Basic service is just a sleeping room,
with roomers providing their own bedding, towels, etc.).  

[The dorm person and I talked about 75-150 bed spaces, on the assumption
that some folks would be staying at hotels, by preference.]

[These rates are based on nonprofit rates.  I have emails back and forth
in which I explain to the person giving me the rates that we are a "small
political party" and that our campus affiliate, the UA Campus Greens, is
equivalent to young democrats/ young republicans, and that we are not
501c3, which I then had to explain was part of the tax code, etc.  So she
finally determined that we should be put in the "nonprofit" status, not
the "for profit."  If we were determined to be "for profit," presumably
the rates would be higher.]  

The only trolley line in the city runs from campus to 4th Avenue,
effectively connecting delegates who dorm to the convention site.  There
are also buses, and it is a short walk (approx 5 blocks).

Hotels
Inexpensive hotel (Flamingo)
$40 single, $50 double, $56 if 4 or 4 (on two queen beds).  [We may be
able to negotiate a better group rate-- that person was not available.]
Bus service plus some walking.

Medium hotel (Sheraton 4 Points, Tucson)  [This is the one on the other
side of campus, and requires a bus ride or a fair walker used to the
heat.]
$60 for 2, $5@ extra for 3-5 in a room, with one in a rollaway, with 10
or more rooms.

Expensive hotel (Marriott, University)
$104 for single or double, $15/ person up to four per room, w 10 or more
rooms.  [If I go back through the same person, we can get the $15 waived,
and go flat rate].  

There are no unionized hotel options.  [We are a "right to work" state,
and unions struggle here.  Our state Green Party chair is a union
official, and our local Green Party held several solidarity events during
the recently settled strike of copper miners at ASARCO, so we have a deep
commitment to labor.  We have what we have.]

[There is an 8% sales tax, plus a hotel tax that I'll have to look into.]

Meals
Meals:  Refreshments can be catered at the meeting location - but they
are not able to accommodate meals.  Each hotel/ dorm has breakfast (and
all day) capability on site or across the street, and we are prepared to
lay out fruit and roll baskets on site at cost, for those who skip
breakfast and regret it.    

For lunches and dinners, however, delegates will prefer the myriad
options on or near the 4th Avenue district, which lies just behind our
convention site.  Fourth Avenue is home of the spring and winter Fourth
Avenue Street Fair. This half mile of street has shops and stores going
back to the 60's incl a food coop (The Food Conspiracy) and a feminist
bookstore (Antigone's.)  The DQ goes back further, and Caruso's Italian
restaurant opened in 1938.  Mixed in with bead shops, thrift stores and
everything trendy and retro, are a rich variety of small bars, bistros,
coffeehouses, cafes, pubs, casbahs, BBQs, lounges, internet cafes, burger
joints, pizza patios, sandwich shops, diners, pits, and restaurants.  The
food choices range the continents, and include vegetarian and vegan.  

It is here that one is most likely to see Green Party bumper stickers,
white boys with Rastafian haircuts, cowboy poets, aging lesbians, and
tourists pretending they don't notice.

The local Green Party would like to host a dinner on Friday night at a
nearby activist church (6 blocks away).  We would like to invite
delegates to stand with the Women in Black from 5pm to 5:45pm (in front
of the church), then go inside, and hear about Humane Borders (the
organization that places water in the desert for border crossers) while
we eat.  This event is seen as a fundraiser for the local party.