Bariloche feels that a sister cities program can be of great importance for the community, driving it to a global integration with new techniques and technologies to support commerce, health system, environment, democratization and tourism. We wish to see the sister cities programs leading community development and working in popular sectors, as well as to see its members collaborating with counterparts of other countries. We expect the sister cities program and its volunteers representing all Bariloche community sectors and all aspects of its society: diversity, history, aspirations. Our wish is that this sister cities program becomes our community international welcome.

Far from being limited to be linked to just a single city in a single country, the Bariloche Sister Cities Committee pretends to have many sister cities closely bonded to a broad part of our community international relations. To achieve that we seek to be working as an international visitors center, protocol office and a club of friends. Therefore, the committee members and volunteers should work as community diplomats, offering their intercultural experience and knowledge of foreign countries, cultures and languages.

For these relations to succeed, actions should be based on a solid local program of volunteers, willing to invest their time, talent and resources to develop a lasting relation with their abroad counterparts. It is of great importance that the members and municipal representatives are fully committed with the program goals and objectives. To succeed the relation must be buily around a history of cooperation between both cities, considering the present needs of the program and anticipating the future ones, as the program developes, adapts and grows.

For this reason the Committee, adopting the Sister Cities International (SCI) standards, has revised and extended the contents of the SCI “Building Your Local Program” Guide , to be up to the demands of a continuous growing and changing net. This guide has been designed to help SCI members to organize and strengthen their programs, for cities seeking to establish a first relation, for those recently linked or for cities linked long ago with several sister cities.

The following Sister Cities background facts are the most significant:

Sister Cities thrive all over the World, playing an important role to sustainable development of communities. The number of associations keeps growing in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Since 1986, just in the ex URRS, the associations numbers have grown from 6 to 157. Sister Cities helped to end Cold War, supporting the democratization and popular community participation in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). During the Madrid Peak meeting of December 1955, the USA and the European Union made a call to sister cities for promoting exchange “in order to deepen the popular support to overseas relations and to enrich the exchange of ideas to help find solutions to shared problems”

In like manner, relations between sister cities in the Western Hemisphere offers a net through which the recommendations of the United Nations Environment and Development Conference (UNCED) goals can be implemented.

• Access to the database of associates to the Sister Cities program (SCH) and orientation and support during the partnering process.
• Technical assistance for the design, financing and administration of a sister cities local program.
• International training: intercultural aptitude, protocol and development materials.
• Contact with municipal professionals as well as political leaders from all over the World.
• Updated information about main NGOs, foundations and government initiatives that support sister cities activities.
• Guides and booklets for program development; practical training; exchange of teachers and youth; proposal drafting.
• Reduced registration and exposition fees, in regional, national and international conferences.
• Eligibility for innovative subsidy programs, ranging from youth exchange to municipal training.
• Eligibility for the annual program of distinctions.
• Discounts in group travel programs and incentive travels.
• Eligibility for the Youth Artists Program and international sponsorships.
• Valuable opportunities create nets, through conferences and public meetings. (regional, bilateral and international).

• Friends and relatives
• Local bussines
• Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development Bureau
• Civil Associations: Rotary, Lions, Youth League, Housewives League, etc.
• Technology groups; communications
• Travel groups, tourism
• Environmental organizations
• Aged persons groups
• Scouts and similar organizations
• Neighbourhood councils
• Municipal services
• Police and firemen
• Border police and coastguard
• Ethnical colectivities and cultural organizations
• Plastic artists, musicians, theater groups
• Primary, secondary and technical schools; universities
• Students, teachers, Principals, inspectors
• Hospitals and clinics
• Museums, historic conservation organizations, libraries
• Churches, sinagoges, mezquites, temples
• Newspapers, TV and radio stations

Once reunited, the sister cities program volunteers need to be organized, involved and conducted. The local sister city must:

• Create a system so that each volunteer can fully participate in the program
• Guarantee that each subcommittee works properly
• Get full commitment of all leaders
• Contribute to development and perpetuation of the organization
• Promote the program importance in the community

Bariloche suggests to all cities interested in partnering with our city, the creation of a special commission, with the participation of representatives of a wide scope of important community sectors, sustained by an institutional code of procedures with the permanent objective of coping with all issues related with sister cities projects and programs faced by the community. A representative BoD should be elected in this commission.

• Long term planning, through development and implementation of policies
• Financial follow-up of programs
• Evaluation of program activities

The authority and functions of the BoD members must be clearly defined by the regulations. It is imperative that the directors are far more than symbolic figures lacking capacity to act.

Along with establishing the authority and functions of the BoD members, their service period must also be fixed, for example establishing a three year period with a rotative system were 1/3 of the members are renewed every year. In this case, when electing a 12 member BoD for the first time, 4 of them will be elected for one year, 4 for a period of two years and 4 for a period of three years. In the second year, 3 new members can be elected for a period of 3 years.

Bariloche suggests including in the statutes a clause that limits the number of periods a BoD member can serve and, at the same time, a prohibition to serve more than two consecutive periods. This kind of clause guarantees the rotation of positions and that all partners can have the chance to occupy a leading position in the organization.

It is advisable to share responsibilities between the BoD members

President

• Lead the organization
• Act as the spokesman of the group
• Preside meetings
• Lead BoD agenda
• Motivate and stimulate the group

Vicepresident

• Replace the President during his absences
• Cooperate with the President functions
• Can eventually act as Elected President

Treasurer

• Responsible for general financial tasks of the program
• Prepare financial reports, for internal use, as well as tax reports
• Is not in charge of fund raising activities

Secretary

• Dully notifies all members about the meetings
• Records meetings Minutes
• Responsible for internal communications and mailing

Bariloche suggests a pyramidal organization for the local program. Programs must have a President, a Vice president, a Treasurer, a Secretary, a BoD and several committees.

The first part of this booklet has been dedicated to describe us as a community. In this last section we will try to describe the Bariloche Sister Cities goals.

• Exchange ideas and promote friendship with our counterparts in different societies, with a personal and direct relation
• Establish our identity as members of the human race, committed with constructing peace in the World
• Develop a system through which all community sectors can participate and enjoy the benefits of a cooperative program
• Initiate new contacts with people from different cultures, to find innovative solutions to achieve better urban living quality
• Participate in a program with counterparts from other countries, so that all community members can feel that they are contributing to international understanding in a personal and direct way
• Have a better understanding of our own community, through the interpretation of its way of life in relation to people belonging to foreign cultures

Inside the frame of the Sister Cities program, Bariloches own goals are the following:

• Cooperate in the development of a general strategy for Bariloche as a city, in order to upgrade its commercial, educational and cultural opportunities by establishing relations with prestigious sister and friend cities.

The Bariloche Sister Cities committee has concluded that it is essential to count with the interest and support of the city inhabitants. The municipal authorities must understand and support sisterhoods. To achieve maximum benefits of sister cities program relations it is also necessary to have the support of the business community; there should be a group of businessmen in each sister city, efficiently working together. There seems to be a kind of “personal chemistry’ contributing to transform the general sisterhood concept in a reality of shared activities.

Tourism is the basic economic activity of Bariloche and the Sister Cities Committee seeks to establish relations with foreign cities of similar economic characteristics. We consider the business aspect in a city community to be very important among sister cities activities, and that a brotherhood relation between cities offers an excellent opportunity for business cooperation, teaching and learning, achieving mutual economic benefits.

Bariloche feels that a trial period of up to two years should be held with cities interested in a sisterhood program, so that both parts have the opportunity to check if all the required elements for a good relation really exist.

The Bariloche Sister Cities Committee policy is to associate with no more than one sister city per country, and to support that relation with a subcommittee.

In case of new cities from a country in which there already exists a Bariloche sister city, the new ones will be referred as Friend Cities.

We demand that our own members have a good comprehension of the sister city. In return, we expect to establish relations with communities capable and willing to support the relation with a subcommittee with members that have:

• The capacity to speak in the language of the other city
• Experience or knowledge of the geography, habits, tradition and history of the country where the sister city is located
• Sufficient experience and knowledge of the sister city and its goals, as to include business and educational interests in the shared programs
• Interest and time to actively dedicate themselves as a backing group for this sister city relation

Bariloche wishes that the relations with sister cities generates mutual benefits, more than be focused in simple official declarations. We insist: for Bariloche the ideal relation between sister cities involve the commitment of individuals, an active participation of business and culture community representatives and the interest and support of political leaders. Through alliances with other communities with basic similarities, we expect to achieve a better understanding of their individual qualities and an ideal opportunity to talk with them about common problems.