The Foreign Service Journal, March 2011

M A R C H 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 27 Preparing for a Fight If the end of 2010 is any indication, the Foreign Service and federal employees are in for a daunting year in 2011. In December, Pres. Obama’s National Commission on Fis- cal Responsibility and Reform released a report that took a swipe at federal employees and the Foreign Service, specif- ically targeting OCP. Though the report failed to move, Senators Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., andMarkWarner, D-Va., have announced plans to introduce legislation early in 2011 based on the report. Also, at the end of the year, Pres. Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for federal employees, which was included in the CR. Given the tough fiscal environment and the changes brought by the November election, AFSA and the Foreign Service have a tough year ahead. We will be up on Capitol Hill early in 2011, meeting the new members of Congress to inform and educate them about the critically important work the Foreign Service does. We will continue to expand our alliances with other unions and organizations to protect what we have fought so hard to gain. A FSA significantly increased its outreach ef- forts in 2010. An internal reorganization created a new four-person team focusing on communications, marketing and outreach, and the payoff has been a very successful ex- pansion in the scope and definition of AFSA’s outreach work. The story of the Foreign Service reached more Americans in 2010 than ever before. Special Events The past year saw AFSA host more events than at any time in its history. AFSA’s charitable 501(c)(3) arm, the Fund for American Diplomacy, received a generous $15,000 donation from Lockheed Martin, which enabled us to present a highly attended speaker series focusing on the skills and resources needed for 21st-century diplomacy. Among the speakers were Ambassador John Negroponte, Representative Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., and Alec Ross, the State Department’s senior adviser for innovation. In addition to this series, AFSA inaugurated a Book Notes program focused on titles related to foreign affairs and diplomacy. Among the authors who led discussions of their works were ambassadors John Limbert, Jack Matlock and Richard Solomon. The fourth annual Adair Family Memorial Lecture took place on the campus of American University in Sep- tember, where Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy provided an insightful overview of “U.S.-China Relations and Foreign Service Challenges” to a standing-room audience of more than 500 academics and students. In late October, AFSA offered a blockbuster panel dis- cussion on the 20th anniversary of German reunification, featuring former National Security Adviser General Brent Scowcroft and Ambassador Roz Ridgway, with journalist Marvin Kalb as moderator. All of these events were taped by WETA-TV for its Web site as part of a new partnership with the longtime Washington, D.C., PBS af- filiate. Online Presence AFSA’s online presence improved by leaps and bounds in 2010. Some readers will by now have visited the brand- new AFSA Web site (www.afsa.org ), which was recently unveiled. Its content and navigation are a huge improve- ment, and we urge our members to visit the site for many AFSA resources. In addition, AFSA’s list of Facebook fans crossed the 2,000 mark, and our Twitter feed also steadily added followers throughout the year. ANNUAL REPORT American Foreign Service Association 2010 Outreach and Public Affairs Efforts Sharply Expanded ■ B Y Á SGEIR S IGFÚSSON , M ARKETING AND O UTREACH M ANAGER , AND T OM S WITZER , D IRECTOR OF C OMMUNICATIONS Amb. J. Stapleton Roy, left, discusses the rise of China at the Adair Memorial Lecture on Sept. 1 at American University. Jeff Watts/American University