Committee discusses reestablishing contact with Hungary twin, gifts display and possible community travel to sister cities

The Sister Cities Committee reviewed a letter from Solnik, Hungary, expressing interest in reestablishing the twinning relationship and proposing cultural events, exhibitions and student exchanges.

Unidentified Speaker 2 read the outreach request, saying the Hungarian contact hopes to "shape future cooperation together" and urged the committee to indicate opportunities and interests. Members agreed a first step could be a short Zoom meeting rather than a formal, detailed letter.

Committee members proposed inviting local resident Peter Somcic to advise on Hungary contacts and protocol, and suggested consulting Adrian Adam to confirm points of contact. The committee also discussed practical constraints such as time-zone differences; one member noted some sister cities are 12 hours ahead, while others are 6 hours ahead, making synchronous meetings challenging.

Separately, members confirmed corrections to the public display of Sister City gifts (for example, relabeling an item to "Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland") and discussed involving students in creating exhibit labels. Members also heard a preliminary proposal from a travel agent to package community trips that include a visit to a sister city (Portsmouth, U.K., was suggested). The travel-agency concept would likely offer one complimentary slot for every roughly 20 paying participants; committee members discussed promoting such trips to the broader community and splitting proceeds to support both gifts and promotional costs.

No formal commitments were made; committee members asked for materials from the travel agent and volunteered to reach out to suggested local contacts. The item will return to a future agenda when additional information is available.