The Foreign Service Journal, February 2006

become a luxury for us. Meanwhile, when we are not driving annually across the U.S. to visit two energetic little grandsons in California, we only have to fill up at the pump about every six weeks. Jewell Fenzi Washington, D.C. 20 Years in the Informal Reserve I served in the Foreign Service from 1952 to 1980, and in the “infor- mal reserve” — on WAE and contract status — from 1980 to 2000. During the reserve years, I held a number of short-term assignments in offices concerned with freedom of informa- tion, political military affairs, political asylum cases, refugee matters, lan- guage services and, above all, human rights. I also had several contract assignments with NGOs holding con- tracts with USAID, one of which involved travel to Africa. I was a member of the first Human Rights Country Reports Team assembled to edit and prepare the annual volume for publication. Mandated by Congress, these annual reports require sensitive handling and impose a heavy workload on em- bassies and the department. In 1984, then-Assistant Secretary for Human Rights Elliott Abrams decided to form a team of senior officers to coor- dinate this process. I served on this team for well over a decade, primari- ly editing the African reports. This was by far the most interesting and rewarding work I performed in the informal reserve. It involved four months each year of intense activity with various bureaus and embassies. In my experience, the selection of officers for assignments in the infor- mal reserve comes about through a casual process of keeping in touch with other officers, bureaus and pub- lications. One assignment leads to F E B R 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 55