The Foreign Service Journal, January 2009

W ho among us in today’s For- eign Service has not thought about challenging some issue related to our work? Perhaps you have witnessed a colleague’s courageous stand against the status quo, his or her willing- ness to ask the tough questions or to dis- agree with conventional wis- dom. Yet too often the tendency is to shrug one’s shoulders, to “go along” and not rock the boat. Then we find ourselves thinking of the “what ifs” — what if we had registered our dissent when it might have made a difference? Or taken the time to recognize some- one who took a risk for what he or she believed? This is our last call for nominations for the 2009 AFSADissent Awards. Please take this opportunity to put in writing and submit toAFSA your nomination for someone who had the courage to challenge the system. There are four award categories: The Tex Harris Award for a Foreign Service Specialist TheW. Averell HarrimanAward for a Junior Officer (FS-4, 5 or 6) The William R. Rivkin Award for a Mid-Level Officer (FS-1, 2 or 3) The Christian A. Herter Award for a Senior Officer (FE-OC-FE-CA). Help AFSA show that there are still risk-takers among us. Your participa- tion in this process is critical. Con- structive dissent is born of intellectual courage. Help us demonstrate that this quality exists in our Foreign Service. AFSA also offers three awards for ex- emplary performance and extraordi- nary contributions to professionalism, morale and effectiveness. These are: the Avis BohlenAward , for a Foreign Serv- ice family member; the DelavanAward , for an Office Man- agement Specialist; and the M. Juanita Guess Award , for a Community Liai- son Officer. We are the only organization repre- senting federal em- ployees to actively encourage and pub- licly honor the “risk-takers” and the “shin-kickers” in our midst. Please take the time to send in your nomination now. The deadline is Feb. 27, 2009. Information on submitting a nomi- nation is detailed in the December 2008 AFSA News , and it is also posted online at www.afsa.org/awards , along with a nomination form, which can be sub- mitted online. You can also link to arti- cles about the AFSA awards and find a comprehensive listing of past award winners in all categories. Any questions may be directed to Professional Issues Coordinator Barbara Berger at berger@afsa.org, by telephone at (202) 338-4045, ext. 521, or by fax to (202) 338-6820. LAST CALL FOR AFSA AWARD NOMINATIONS BY BARBARA BERGER, PROFESSIONAL ISSUES COORDINATOR J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 55 American Foreign Service Association • January 2009 AFSA NEWS AFSA Scholarship Application Deadline – Feb. 6 H igh school seniors and college undergraduates of Foreign Ser- vice employees (active-duty, retired and deceased) are eligible to apply for one-time-only AFSA Aca- demic/Art Merit Awards and renew- able need-based AFSA Financial Aid Scholarships. See page 61 for details. JOSH AFSA Welcomes New Administration BY JOHN K. NALAND, AFSA PRESIDENT A FSA’s transition planning, which began last summer withmeetings with senior foreign policy advis- ers to the two nominees for president, kicked into high gear following the elec- tion of Barack Obama. AFSA immedi- ately submitted a request to meet with Vice President-elect Joe Biden, since in recent decades it often has been in the White House, not Capitol Hill, that for- eign affairs agencies’ budget requests have faced their biggest hurdles. In early December, AFSA had very productive meetings with President- elect Obama’s transition teams at State and USAID. AFSA will also seek early appointments with Secretary of State- designate Hillary Clinton, the USAID Administrator-designate, and other in- coming officials with foreign affairs re- sponsibilities. As AFSA and our Civil Service col- leagues did for Secretary Colin Powell in 2001, we have offered to organize a wel- coming ceremony in the C Street lobby for Secretary Clinton on her first day.