Another successful activity that your Citizenship Team can stage to garner visibility is the Community Citizenship Summit. Planning and implementing an event of this nature can help galvanize support for and understanding of your local citizenship-through-sports efforts.

Unlike the Citizenship Training Seminars, those who should be invited to participate in the Citizenship Summit is more encompassing, as the summit is crucial in spreading the news of your group's goals and objectives to the rest of the community. Each Citizenship Team member should offer five to seven names of people who should be invited. Specific areas of invitation should include:

• Groups with which you can partner (community action groups, civic organizations)



• Business entities (retail, manufacturing, industry, and service)



• Education (teachers, administrators, students from public/private schools)



• Religious (representatives from all major faith groups)



• Senior citizens



• Government leaders (the CEO of your municipality; local, state, and county representatives; members of the municipality's governing board; and, if appropriate, local members of Congress)



• Parents (for example, officers of the PTA or PTO)



• Coaches (of all sports throughout the community/school district)



• Athletes (from public and private organizations, male and female, professional, and Olympic sports)



• Members of the media (both electronic and print)

Ideally, the Citizenship Summit should be staged shortly after your organizational group has been formed, but just before any concrete plans have been established. Though you should have some ideas of the activities/programs your group will consider becoming involved in, the summit gives you ample opportunity to test those considerations and to give participants an opportunity to have input in the planning process.

What Should be Covered?

The summit should be a venue to review the following topics:

• Explanation of the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance (goals, objectives, history, etc.)



• Explanation of your Citizenship Team's organization and goals, as well as preliminary plans



• An open forum on the state of citizenship in the community



• An open forum on ways to improve the sensitivity and appreciation for citizenship in the community



• Recruitment of individuals to participate in Citizenship Team activities



• Closure and explanation of "next steps" regarding future contact and Citizenship Team updates

Someone known in the community who has speaking ability, and who can keep the flow of the program going smoothly, should be invited to moderate the summit. That person should be "assisted" by other individuals (perhaps from the Citizenship Team) to make presentations and facilitate discussions on the topics to be addressed.

To stimulate discussion, consider having a panel of three to five persons discuss citizenship in your community. Then, allow the audience to comment and add their ideas to what has been generated. The moderator should allow each panel member a few moments to make some introductory remarks about citizenship, and then open the discussion up to all in attendance.

Evaluation and Follow-up

The Community Citizenship Summit will serve numerous purposes, but the most important one is that it will enlighten your team about the baseline attitude about citizenship in your community. Use the brief evaluation questionnaire (Reference Evaluation section on this Website) to assess the audience's views. A post-evaluation questionnaire, to be mailed to the same individuals after the program has been in place for a year, is also included.

It is equally important to keep in touch with those who attend the summit. In addition to your core team, these are individuals who do not have ownership in your project and are most likely to disseminate information and generate enthusiasm. One suggestion to keep in touch is to deliver a quarterly update either via mail or e-mail.

Generating Media Coverage

As with any Citizenship Team activity or event, appropriate publicity will further your message and cause. Both the training seminars and Community Citizenship Summit are excellent methods of making your group's intentions known. For details on planning, preparing, and disseminating public/media relations materials, see the "Public Relations: Getting Your Message Out" section on this Website.