The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2021

56 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS descriptions for all officer positions, go to www.afsa. org/board. Nomination Procedures Nominating Candidates. Any AFSA regular member in good standing (i.e., a mem- ber whose dues are automat- ically deducted or who has paid dues as of Feb. 12, 2021) may nominate any person (including themselves) for any of the available positions for which the nominee is eli- gible. The following require- ments apply to nominations: 1. No member may nomi- nate more than one person for each officer position, or more than the number of representatives established for each constituency. No member’s name may appear on the ballot for more than one position. 2. All nominations must be submitted in writing by letter or email. To be valid, they must, without excep- tion, be received no later than 5 p.m. on Feb. 12, 2021. All written nomina- tions must be addressed to the AFSA Committee on Elections, 2101 E Street NW, Washington D.C. 20037. Email nominations must be sent to election@afsa.org . 3. Nominations may be submitted individually or in slates. To qualify as a slate, a proposed slate must have a minimum of four candidates from at least two constitu- encies. Slate designations will be noted on the ballot. Call for Nominations Continued from p. 51 Qualifications for Govern- ing Board Membership. Individuals meeting the fol- lowing qualifications are eli- gible for nomination to one of the available positions: 1. The individual must be an AFSA regular member in good standing by Feb. 12, 2021, and remain in good standing through the elec- tion process and, if elected, for his or her term of office. 2. The individual must not have a conflict of inter- est as defined in Section 1017(e) of the Foreign Service Act. (Please see the “Conflicts of Interest” sec- tion below for more informa- tion.) 3. Active-duty members presenting themselves as candidates for president or constituency vice president must hold an active security clearance. Conflicts of Interest. Sec- tion 1017(e) of the For- eign Service Act restricts employees serving in certain positions within their agen- cies from participating in labor-management issues while serving on the Gov- erning Board. Management officials and confidential employees, as well as those in positions that may raise or appear to raise a con- flict of interest (as defined below) when the new Gov- erning Board takes office on July 15, may not participate in Governing Board dis- cussion, deliberations or decisions relating to labor- management issues. They may participate in AFSA Board activities that do not relate to labor-management issues. The Foreign Service Act also imposes a two-year pre- and post-AFSA “cooling off” period on employees who occupied or will occupy positions within their agency that involve labor- management relations or the formulation of personnel policies and programs of a foreign affairs agency. a. Section 1017(e) of the Act, 22 USC 4117(e) states: “Participation in labor organizations restricted. (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchap- ter (A) participation in the management of a labor organization for purposes of collective bargaining or acting as a representative of a labor organization for such purposes is prohibited under this subchapter (i) on the part of any manage- ment official or confidential employee; (ii) on the part of any individual who has served as a management official or confidential employee during the preced- ing two years; or (iii) on the part of any other employee if the participation or activ- ity would result in a conflict of interest or apparent conflict of interest or would otherwise be incompatible with law or with the official functions of such employee; and (B) service as a man- agement official or confiden- tial employee is prohibited on the part of any individual having participated in the management of a labor organization for purposes of collective bargaining or having acted as a represen- tative of a labor organization during the preceding two years. (2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(A)(ii) and paragraph (1)(B), the term “management official” does not include (A) any chief of mission; (B) any principal officer or deputy principal officer; (C) any administra- tive or personnel officer abroad; or (D) any indi- vidual described in section 4102(12)(B), (C), or (D) of this title who is not involved in the administration of this subchapter or in the formulation of the personnel policies and programs of the Department.” b. Section 1002 (12), 22 USC 4102(12) of the Act defines a management offi- cial as “an individual who: is a chief of mission or princi- pal officer; occupies a posi- tion of comparable impor- tance to chief of mission or principal officer; is serving as a deputy to the foregoing positions; is assigned to the Office of the Inspector AFSA is currently working on a proposal to convert one of the six State Representative positions into a 100 percent official time (i.e., full-time with AFSA) position, with a focus on specialist issues. Should this proposal be approved, AFSAwill notify the State Department constituency of this change.We will then call for nominations that are specific to this special representative position.