The Foreign Service Journal, December 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2012 59 AFSA NEWS COUNT I NG VOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESULTS On or about June 6, 2013, the Elections Committee will count the ballots and declare elected the candi- date receiving the greatest number of votes for each position. Candidates or their representatives may be present during the tally and may challenge the validity of any vote or the eligibility of any voter. The committee will inform candidates individu- Elections Committee Members Hon. Robert W. Farrand, Chair pamichko@aol.com (703) 241-0816 Denise Jobin Welch jobinwelchdi@state.gov (202) 632-9365 Michael Conlon michael.conlon@fas.usda.gov (202) 690-4057 Richard Thompson risath@aol.com (301) 229-6442 AFSA Staff Ian Houston, Executive Director houston@afsa.org ( 202) 944-5505 Sharon Papp, General Counsel papps@state.gov (202) 647-8160 Janet Hedrick, Director, Member Services hedrick@afsa.org (703) 203-9002 Donna Ayerst, AFSA News Editor ayerst@afsa.org (202) 338-4045 ally of the election results by the swiftest possible means and will publish the names of all elected candidates in the next issue of The Foreign Service Journal. The elected candidates will take office on July 15, 2013, as provided in the bylaws. n The U.S. Agency for Interna- tional Development needs your help documenting the firsthand experiences of USAID personnel who have worked in-country with USAID during periods of mass atrocities or extremely high levels of violence.  As the agency develops new training materials and other resources to support field officers serving in high risk posts, USAID intends to have that process driven by the voices, perspectives and insights of those who have personal experience with atrocity prevention and response.   In April 2012, President Barack Obama announced a comprehensive strategy to prevent and respond to mass atrocities during remarks Documenting Individual Experiences with Atrocity Response delivered at the U.S. Holo- caust Memorial Museum. The strategy was the culmination of Presidential Study Direc- tive 10, which declares that “preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security inter- est and a core moral respon- sibility of the United States of America.” Individuals interested in sharing their experiences will be inter- viewed in person, or virtu- ally, by staff in the Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights and Gov- ernance and the Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation. Interviews will be recorded for the purpose of developing multimedia training materials, though experiences can also be documented with limited attribution, if requested.  In terms of the focus of the new resources being devel- oped, USAID is not only interested in describing what programmatic actions might help with early warning, protection and related issues, but the opera- tional issues and constraints that USAID personnel face in these contexts. The interagency does not have a singular defini- tion of mass atrocities, as PSD10 intentionally avoided a threshold definition that might constrain policymak- ers. That said, the most relevant examples are ones with large-scale and/or systematic violence against civilians. While the atroci- ties in Rwanda, Sudan and the former Yugoslavia are oft cited examples, USAID is also interested in learning about similar experiences in Burundi, East Timor, Guate- mala, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan and Sri Lanka. To volunteer for an inter- view, or for more information or questions, please contact Mark Goldenbaum a t mgold- enbaum@usaid.gov or (202) 712-0729. n