Creating Sister City

Hi there,
My small town is currently working on building a sister city relationship with a city in the US. In our case, we are starting by sending a group of middle schoolers there every year for a week long exchange program. Basically, I don't think the city would have paid any attention to us or even known that emails coming from us were legit unless we showed up in person and actually met staff at their city hall (they were suspicious at first because our contact was so out of the blue). So our relationship is based on our commitment to keep sending students there every year, and we're starting an annual pen pal program as well. Since our side wants to be sister cities and reached out initially, it's basically up to me to create as many broad connections as possible until the name of our town becomes known in their city office and the mayor takes a more serious interest in us.
Since a sister city relationship is an official status reached by both mayors signing an agreement, I would say you should pursue the exchange program first by working with local schools before you jump straight to the sister city part.
Hope that's helpful!

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