The Foreign Service Journal, March 2011

he publication of AFSA’s an- nual report offers an opportunity to comment on two cen- tral questions that each new Governing Board grapples with: Is the American Foreign Service Association adapt- ing well to changing circumstances? And is it serving the in- terests of its members in the best possible way? AFSA’s mission in 1924, when the association was formed, was to “foster an esprit de corps” in the Foreign Service, whose consular and diplomatic functions had been brought together by the Rogers Act passed earlier that year. For its first 50 years, before it became an “exclusive repre- sentative,” it served principally as a fraternal management society like the American Bar Association and the Ameri- can Medical Association, dedicated to promoting the in- terests and the influence of an elite corps of professionals. This core mission hasn’t changed, but the organization’s scope and activities have broadened considerably, particu- larly in recent decades. AFSA has evolved from a handful of dedicated staff (mostly unpaid volunteers), whose main function was publishing a monthly journal, into a sophisti- cated, multifunctional, nonprofit organization with a salaried staff of 29, an annual budget of $4.5 million, and a membership of more than 15,400. AFSA Becomes a Bargaining Agent The social ferment of the late 1960s had an impact on the Foreign Service, just as it did on most American insti- tutions. AFSA was no exception, and the “Young Turks” who took charge of the association in the early 1970s (Bill Harrop, TomBoyatt, LannonWalker and others) were de- termined to modernize the practice of diplomacy as a pro- fession. When President Richard Nixon signed his 1972 execu- tive order mandating the election of bargaining agents to represent federal employees at each agency and depart- ment, AFSA’s leadership seized the opportunity. AFSA eas- ily defeated the American Federation of Government Employees to become the exclusive representative for all Foreign Service employees of the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the United States Information Agency in 1973. The idea of taking on a union’s functions didn’t sit well with everyone in the Foreign Service. Traditionalists felt the existing personnel system worked well enough, and many of them tended to identify more with management than “labor.” But AFSA’s new leadership recognized the F OCUS ON THE AFSA 2010 A NNUAL R EPORT 40 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 T OWARD A M ORE P ERFECT U NION AFSA IS A MUCH BIGGER ENTITY THAN WHEN FOUNDED IN 1924, BUT ITS TOP PRIORITY REMAINS SERVING THE INTERESTS OF ITS MEMBERS . B Y T ED W ILKINSON T TedWilkinson, a Foreign Service officer from 1961 to 1996 and AFSA president from 1989 to 1991, is the chairman of the FSJ Editorial Board.