The Foreign Service Journal, March 2011

24 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 1 1 oping an internal advocacy team; forging better communi- cation tools; seeking more direct engagement by our ac- tive-duty members and retirees around the country; establishing new organizational alliances and coalitions; and using our Political Action Committee strategically. Congress Passage of a Foreign Relations authorization bill remains an important goal, but our biggest immediate priority is Overseas Comparability Pay. Based on the Comparability Pay Act of 1990, all federal employees receive salaries adjusted to the prevailing mar- ket rates for similar skills and experience in the private sec- tor. Working in parallel with management, we have obtained the first two tranches of OCP, but the fate of the third tranche is unclear. Prospects for keeping OCP are at best uncertain, but AFSA is mounting a major effort to explain that denying comparability pay for service overseas — the mission of the Foreign Service —would undermine our civilian for- eign affairs institutions by penalizing Foreign Service per- sonnel at the very moment that we need them to serve overseas in increasingly difficult, dangerous and risky sit- uations. This coming year will present serious challenges for the Foreign Service. We will need to be determined and per- haps bolder than we have been in presenting our case against the backdrop of a very tough fiscal environment, with deficit reduction an understandable priority. We plan to call on our members to engage with us on the Hill and in home districts to speak up for the Foreign Services of all our member agencies. The Media Our sharply expanded outreach, marketing and media program is described in detail elsewhere in this report. We have worked hard to raise the profile of diplomacy and de- velopment and have seen the number of press releases, let- ters to the editor, articles, and op-eds placed in major media increase markedly. WikiLeaks did its share to draw attention to diplomacy, and we have sought to use occa- sions such as the annual AFSAMemorial Plaque ceremony or the 30th anniversary of the release of American hostages from Iran as reminders of the courage and sacrifice of the Foreign Service. Our newly established speakers program and AFSA Booknotes series have been effective outreach and educa- tional tools, explaining the importance of diplomacy to a broad range of professional and academic audiences. We reinforced these efforts with new programs such as our dis- cussion series in partnership with LockheedMartin and spe- cial events, such as the panel discussion we held on the 20th anniversary of German reunification. That event featured General Brent Scowcroft and Amb. Rozanne Ridgway. Membership We have continued to build our active-duty and retiree membership, which has grown from 10,500 a decade ago to well past 15,000 members now. We are reassessing how we communicate with our members and plan to use our new Web site, along with our Facebook and Twitter ac- counts in more targeted and effective ways that will im- prove and expand our member services. Already we are in a position to seek much greater mem- ber participation in telling the story of today’s Foreign Serv- ice to Congress and to the American public in new and better ways. AFSA Internal Operations This has been a transformational year in many respects, marked by some reorganization to promote better team- work, investment in our new Web site and other commu- nications technology, and some rethinking of AFSA staffing to strengthen capacity. We approved a number of new po- sitions to do just that, deepening our bench in the areas of policy, legislative work, retiree services and information technology, to be supplemented by short-term contracting for special expertise or projects. ANNUAL REPORT American Foreign Service Association 2010 Ambassador John Negroponte, left, and AFSA President Susan Johnson meet prior to his informal talk at AFSA headquarters on April 7. Francesca Kelly