IX. Post-Event Checklist

You've held your Community Summit, and it was a great success! But don't stop there... follow-up and post-event action is very important for identifying the outcomes, putting some of your ideas into action, and continuing your outreach to new Citizen Diplomacy partners.

Here's a checklist that may help your Coordinating Committee.

  1. Call a Follow-up Meeting of the Coordinating Committee.
    • Schedule a meeting of the Coordinating Committee within a week of the Summit to review the results and design a plan of action.
    • The Committee member assigned to collect and compile input should type up the Summit notes and distribute to Committee members prior to the first follow-up meeting. These will include the flipcharts, group discussion notes, action proposals and evaluations from the Summit.
  2. Prioritize and Assign Action Items.
    • Prioritize and finalize the community's action ideas.
    • COMPLETE THE ONLINE EVALUATION at www.citizen-diplomacy.org
    • Compile list of individuals and organizations to receive thank you letters from the Coordinating Committee. Draft a standard letter to be signed by the same person.
    • Assign action items to members of the Coordinating Committee or other volunteers for follow-up and continuity. Set goal posts and timelines for implementation, if possible.
    • Continue your outreach to new partners, volunteers, interested organizations, community and elected leaders.
  3. Publicize Results
    • Collect Press Clippings. Maintain file of any press clippings or other media coverage. Keep these for post-event publicity, future outreach and recruitment efforts and for distribution to your national associations and the Coalition for Citizen Diplomacy.
    • Decide on any post-event media outreach your committee wishes to make (news release, interviews with the Coordinating Committee, participants, keynote speaker).
    • Prepare a post-event news release. If the local press hasn't covered your event, consider preparing a news release on the event, participants, outcomes, etc. (Sample post-event press release is located in the "How to Create Media Interest" section of the toolkit.) Include photos taken, with captions. Consider asking a prominent community member to write an op-ed on the value of Citizen Diplomacy.
    • Maintain media contacts in order to update them on ongoing Citizen Diplomacy activities and future plans.
    • Issue a report. Some communities may even want to issue a report on Citizen Diplomacy summarizing their Summit findings and action items. The report might serve as a draw for a media event/press conference after the Summit.