The Foreign Service Journal, March 2005

American Foreign Service Association • March 2005 AFSA NEWS O n Feb. 9, we ended the Year of the Monkey and began the Year of the Rooster. So it is time to endmonkey busi- ness andcrowabout our achievements. This year we worked for you both retail and wholesale. We helped individuals caught in a system that sometimes makes “Dilbert” look benign; we supported others whose cases involvedmatters of principle; and we defended our profession against thosewho imagine that the men and women of the ForeignService, like someunruly curs, need “taming” or “bringing to heel.” PRIDE OF PROFESSION AFSA continued its zero-tolerance pol- icy for cheapshots at theForeignService. We defended our consular colleagues in a July 2 letter to the Washington Post ; we argued in a June 2 letter to the Federal Times that the American people deserve qualified and experienced representatives as ambassadors; and we countered the punditry nonsense that accompanied the nomination of Dr. Rice in November 2004. OurAFSAawardceremony inJune2004 wasour time tocrow. Wehonoredourbest: seniors,mid-levels, entry-levels andspecialists who demonstrate creativity and the guts to ask the tough questions. We also honored the eminent scholar/diplomat Ambassador RichardParker forhis “lifetime contributions to American diplomacy.” Judging by the hostile fire they drew fromsome commen- tators, our 2004 dissent awards were defi- nitely on the mark. HONOR OUR VETERANS Retirees are our veterans. We have been pressing to ensure they receive the respect they deserve for honorable service to our country. Wehavewaged this fight onmany fronts. We are calling for desperately-need- ed improvements in how the State Department’s retirement offices deal with both active-duty and retired employees. Miscalculations, badly-worded letters and ham-handed recovery efforts are just part of theproblem: the real issue is a lackof respon- siveness, transparency and com- petence. We have been advising victims andhave been relentless in keeping these issues in front of the director general and the chief financial officer, who, to their credit, are takingon these complex and sensitive problems. GRIEVANCES AFSA continues to provide first-rate legal counsel tomembers — at no cost. In certain cases where a grievant required outside counsel, AFSA provided financial assistance. AFSA also reacteddecisivelywhenUSAIDthought it could ignore decisions of the Foreign ServiceGrievanceBoard toreinstate employ- ees the agency had wrongly separated. In response toagency stonewalling, AFSAboth supported thegrievants’ legal cases andurged the Grievance Board to assert its authority as the final voice. TRAVEL AFSAofficers have spent a lot of time on the road speaking to thepublic andour con- stituencies. Thepresident andStatevicepres- ident addressed entry-level generalists and specialists at EUR, EAPandAFregional con- ferences, where we reviewed AFSA’s posi- tions andundertook individual counseling. We also spoke to public audiences and the press in Texas, New Jersey, Massachusetts andCaliforniaabouthowtheForeignService serves the American people around the world. LEGISLATION: A HARD SLOG After our 2003 success with passage of the lawallowing ForeignService employees serving overseas tobenefit fromtax exemp- tions on the saleof aprincipal residence, our legislative program ran into difficulty. For the second consecutive year, the State authorization bill — containing personnel provisions of great interest to AFSA members — stalled in the Senate. Our efforts to push the process forward ran into a wall of partisan politics. At the top of our to-do list remains the issueof pay equity— securing the equivalent of Washington base pay (locality pay) for all Foreign Service per- sonnel. The gap reached 16 per- cent in 2005 and the collective penalty is about $110million. Wehavebeen adamant on this issue, and will remain so. A PERSONAL NOTE: AFSA NEEDS YOU Iwill be leaving the presidency this sum- mer, andhave beenproud to serve our col- leagues. AFSAis fortunate inhavingadevot- ed professional staff which publishes the ForeignService Journal , advisesmembers on grievances, handles congressional relations, dealswith thepress, administers our awards, assists retirees and keeps our accounts. We are also fortunate in having a committed membershiponwhomour ultimate success depends. It is our members who make AFSApowerful and effective. Your courage means we can honor our dissenters; your generosity nourishes our all-important funds; yourwriting talentsmake the Journal lively. Yourwillingness tocommunicate also keeps us honest and focused on what mat- ters. Please stay involved inAFSA: serve on the Governing and Editorial Boards when you’re in Washington; be an AFSA repre- sentative at post; visit us when you are here on consultations; and please tell me (limbert@afsa.org)wh at we are doing right or wrong. ▫ 2004 PRESIDENT'S REPORT NO MONKEY BUSINESS; LOTS OF CROWING w Annual Repor t 2004 w John Limbert