Sister Cities International (SCI) has set a deadline of March 5, 2001, for its 39th Annual Awards Program, encouraging Mayors to work with their local sister city committees to identify outstanding programs for the national competition.

New SCI Executive Director Tim Honey said that winners will be recognized at the SCI conference in Atlanta July 27, 2001.

SCI also recently announced a new "Campaign for Partnership, Innovation and Excellence" which will be led by SCI's new President, Chuck Stokke, former Mayor of Menominie, Wisconsin and Honey.

The United States Conference of Mayors has joined the SCI campaign as one of their first Millennium Passport Partners in support of the new campaign. "The new effort," Honey said, "is designed to ensure that SCI is meeting the needs of local sister city programs and strengthening the international network of sister cities which now bind together over 3,500 communities in 137 different countries.

New SCI Executive Director Honey, a former city manager, brings to SCI a truly unique local government perspective.

Conference Executive Director J. Thomas Cochran shares a long-standing association with Honey, noting that Honey began his career with the National League of Cities.

"I have known Tim for almost 30 years, and we worked together on many important national legislative issues. Mayors across the country and around the world will soon learn of Tim Honey's passionate commitment to local government and the sister city movements," Cochran said.

As a former city manger, Honey gained extensive experience in local government and overseas has worked in Hungary, South Africa, Uganda and Lebanon.