The Foreign Service Journal, March 2008

54 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / MA R CH 2 0 0 8 A F S A N E W S Y E A R I N R E V I E W AFSA Annual Report 2007 A record number of individuals (36) apply for openings on the FSJ Editorial Board. Academic and Art Merit Scholarships are awarded to 25 stu- dents, totaling $28,500. AFSA/State briefs the OIG inspection team prior to its inspection of various offices in the Human Resources Bureau. AFSA writes to State management in an effort to ensure that employees on pre- scriptive relief from separation are able to be placed in meaningful positions that receive locality pay. AFSA/Elderhostel offers a new one-day pro- gram on Latin America. The FSJ publishes the first of three retiree guidance columns in 2007. Topics include Medicare basics, survivor annuities and guid- ance on the class-action settlement on unused annual leave. AFSA/USAID prepares informational materi- als for congressional hearings on USAID funding and confirmation hearings and meets with congressional staff to discuss staffing and organizational concerns. JUNE JohnMamone joins AFSA as the new execu- tive director. Voting for the new AFSA Governing Board concludes and the votes are counted. The AFSA Awards ceremony is held at the Department of State. Awards are presented for constructive dissent and outstanding performance. Two mid-level officers receive the Rivkin Dissent Award, Ronald Capps andMichael Zorick. Three awards for extraordinary contributions to effectiveness, professionalism and morale are presented at the AFSA Awards ceremony: the M. Juanita Guess Award for a Community Liaison Officer, to Linda Lockwood; the Delevan Award for an Office Management Specialist, toMargaret Baker; and the Avis Bohlen Award for an eligible family member, to JudithMarquardt. Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger presents the annual award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy to retired Ambassador JoanM. Clark. Special awards of apprecia- tion are presented to Faye Barnes, the Customer Service Coordinator in the Office of Retirement, and to Robert J. Wozniak, for his eight years of service as chairman of the AFSA Election Committee. The Foreign Affairs Council holds a press conference hosted by AFSA (a member of the FAC) to present its midterm assessment of Secretary Rice’s stewardship of the State Department. More than 60 major print and electronic media nationwide report on the results. AFSA/State negotiates with the HR Bureau and agrees on the procedural precepts for the 2007 promotion boards. AFSA/State successfully petitions the depart- ment to modify the rules to allow the full Service Need Differential to be paid at posts where a 30- or 35-percent post differential is in force. AFSA/Labor Management protests HR’s policy on paying (or not paying) the lease penalty allowance when an employee answers an urgent request to fill a posi- tion overseas. FCS management signs AFSA’s two fall 2005 midterm proposals regarding time- in-class exceptions and acceptance of lan- guage testing by Diplomatic Language Services vice FSI for language incentive pay. Mrs. Dorothy Cameron establishes a Perpetual Academic Merit Scholarship in the name of her late husband, Turner C. Cameron. AFSA/USAID assists a newly married tandem couple get reimbursement for previously denied joint shipment of effects to Washington. JULY The new AFSA Governing Board —TeamAFSA— takes office on July 15, 2007. AFSA President John K. Naland and State VP Steven B. Kashkett meet with Secretary Rice to discuss Foreign Service member concerns, including funding for diplomacy and ending the overseas pay disparity. AFSA negotiates changes in the fair-share assignment rules that include, at AFSA’s insis- tence, grandfathering provisions based on length of time since last service at a 15-percent hardship post. AFSA agrees to a reduction in the six-year rule for domestic service to five years, after obtain- ing a grandfather clause allowing those who returned prior to 2004 to remain under the six-year rule. AFSA succeeds in preserving the exception for senior year of high school. As part of an ongoing dialog with the State Department Transportation Division, AFSA protests the packing and weighing procedures that often result in employees learning that their household effects shipments are over- weight only when it is too late for them to take corrective action. AFSAmeets with and assists members of the Passport Task Force, in particular those from the most recent A-100 classes. A Columbia Journalism Review editorial praises the Foreign Service Journal for its Iraq cover- age: “Every March since the war in Iraq began, [it] …has examined the state of diplomacy and nation building in Iraq. Reading those issues, one thing is apparent: the [rest of the] press has largely ignored an important story about the consequences for thousands of civilian Foreign Service employees of the administration’s disastrous war.” An annual scholarship in memory of Ambassador Thomas G. Weston is estab- lished by his friends and family. AFSA/USAIDworks with the Executive Diversity Council to improve the Foreign Service skills matrix and promotion precepts in the area of diversity.