NORTH PORT — Members of the city Sister City Advisory Committee walked out of Monday evening’s meeting with an overview of the international program, some tips from the Sarasota chapter and a quandary about whether to continue as a city advisory board or become a nonprofit organization.

The nonprofit Sister Cities International was created during President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1956 White House conference on citizen diplomacy, according to the organization’s website, www.sister-cities.org. “Sister Cities International creates relationships based on cultural, educational, information and trade exchanges … through person-to-person ‘citizen diplomacy,’” the website says. Since then, every president from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama has served as the honorary chairman of Sister Cities International.