The Foreign Service Journal, January 2006

of the Inspector General (45). The regional bureaus also have large WAE rosters: AF (67), EAP (81), EUR (112), NEA/SA (74), and WHA (75). Overseas, WAEs fill vacancies ranging from chargé d’affaires, DCM and consul general posi- tions to slots for management, consular, economic and political officers or section chiefs, particu- larly during the summer transfer season when staffing tends to be especially thin. Some of these assignments are in hardship and danger pay posts. Consider retired FSO Michael Metrinko, who wrote an article in the October 2005 edition of the Foreign Service Journal ( AFSA News section, p. 7) about his experience as a member of a Lithuanian Provincial Reconstruction Team under NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Cheghcheran, the capital of Ghor province in Afghanistan. Responding to wide- spread misconceptions about the supposedly cushy life of U.S. diplomats, both active-duty and retired, he observes: “I served as an FSO from 1974 to 1996, and since then have been a WAE in Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan. My present State Department assign- ment is for a full year to Afghanistan. Trust me when I say I know how my colleagues and I have lived in those places.” As discussed below, there is considerable interest in using WAEs in reconstruction and stabilization, but the development of actual staffing solutions and agreement on providing security for civilian reconstruction com- ponents may be some time off. USAID will have a sig- nificant role in this area, but it re-employs its annui- tants primarily as contractors or on Foreign Service Limited appointments, not as WAEs. USAID cur- rently has only 23 WAEs (generally hired as “expert consultants”), all in Washington, on its rolls. The Foreign Commercial Service put into place the foun- dations of a program for its annuitants several years ago, but never implemented it. Perhaps due to their small size, the Foreign Agricultural Service and International Broadcasting Bureau do not appear to have WAE programs. EP+ for Retirees Debuts “When Iraq happened, we real- ized we didn’t have full manage- ment information on the 1,400 WAEs in the department,” notes David Dlouhy, director of the Office of Retirement. To remedy this, and to establish better links with retirees, the department launched RNet, (www.RNet. state.gov), a secure, Internet- based retirement network, in May. RNet is being used to establish a central registry through which retirees and intending retirees can indicate an interest in post-retirement opportunities. There is a database already used by the active-duty work force, called Employee Profile Plus . An exten- sion of this database, called EP+ for Retirees , is designed to allow retirees to describe additional experi- ence, skills and competencies not captured otherwise. Another module, EP+ for Retiring Employees , is intended to serve as the transition and bridge between active-duty assignment and retirement employment. Retiring employees may express interest in potential post-retirement employment opportunities, sign up for the new WAE Global Registry, and indicate interest in the Operational Readiness Reserve and the retiree com- ponent of the Standby Response Corps. As of November 2005, almost 400 employees intend- ing to retire had established their EP+ profiles, and 120 fully-retired employees had signed onto the system. Of these, 478 had signed up for the global registry, including 435 who indicated interest in the Operational Readiness Reserve, and 312 who were interested in the Standby Response Corps. For most WAEs, the bureaus will still make the hiring decisions and ensure security clearances are up-to-date, but RNet will provide visibility on the WAEs for the central personnel system and for the Readiness Reserve and SRC. Transformational Diplomacy The Secretary of State’s Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, established in 2004, is designated to lead U.S. efforts to assist countries in recov- ering from conflict and transitioning to peaceful, democ- ratic and market-oriented economies. S/CRS is current- F O C U S J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 25 RNet is being used to establish a central registry through which retirees and intending retirees can indicate an interest in post-retirement opportunities.