Republican National Convention Update 06/17/08

A Letter From President & Chief Executive Officer Maria Cino, Dear Friend of the Convention, Hello again from convention headquarters! We are now fewer than 76 days from the start of the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Convention staff continues to prepare for the 45,000 people who will join together here in Minneapolis-Saint Paul to nominate Senator John McCain as our party's candidate for President of the United States, and launch him on his way to the White House.

Since our last newsletter, the convention has received praise from media and bloggers from across the nation for our outreach to the blogosphere and our efforts to organize the most tech-savvy convention in our party's history.

The convention's 100-day-out milestone passed during Memorial Day weekend. To mark the occasion, I authored an op-ed for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press in which the convention called on every American - Republican, Democrat, and Independent - to, in the words of Senator McCain, "serve a cause greater than one's own self-interest."

As part of the call to serve, we also launched a nationwide YouTube contest where the winner will attend the 2008 Republican National Convention. More than 200,000 YouTube users have viewed the video call for entry where Rick Davis, Senator McCain's campaign manager, asked Americans to send us a video of an American Volunteer who is making a difference in their community.

With less than three months to go, the excitement, and our staff, continues to grow. This month, we named more than two dozen college students and recent graduates from across the nation to serve as convention interns. We expect our interns to work hard and learn much that will benefit their future, and the future of the Republican Party.

I look forward to seeing you this September.

Sincerely, Maria Cino, Convention President & CEO