The Foreign Service Journal, March 2012

52 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 2 a small role, as well. Held on April 8, on the eve of an im- minent government shutdown, AFSA’s demonstration brought together several hundred Foreign Service and Civil Service employees in the only demonstration of its kind in Washington. As a result, the FS, along with our CS col- leagues, became the “face of the federal employee” in media across the U.S. Other selected achievements, more or less in chrono- logical order, included: • Incorporating the suggestions of several hundred members into an improved version of e-performance. With two exceptions, all AFSA-suggested improvements were adopted, making e-performance easier to use. • Creating a special category of exchange visitor, hosted by State’s Bureau of Human Resources, making non–U.S. citizen, same-sex domestic partners of members of the For- eign Service eligible to come to the United States during their partners’ domestic assignments. • Negotiating a change to Foreign Affairs Manual regu- lations, so children studying or residing away from post can travel to meet with parents at an intermediate location other than the post under certain circumstances. • Extending the DS-5055 EER form for all tenured em- ployees, affording them greater input into their EERs. • Collaborating with the Foreign Service Institute to produce three new courses for supervisors that, we hope, will reduce improprieties and grievances related to the per- formance evaluation process. • Creating the Secretary’s Expeditionary Service Award, in response to AFSA’s suggestion that State create the equiv- alent of a campaign medal for those who have served in war-zone assignments. • Influencing the department to rescind a directive re- lated to continued service agreements, which would have required employees to repay training and other costs when- ever they left a post early. ANNUAL REPORT American Foreign Service Association 2011 A F S A N E W S F or the Foreign Commercial Service, 2011 proved to be another tough year, with budget concerns dominating. We faced post closures, downsizing and extremely limited interna- tional travel. Roadblocks caused by partisan politics forcedAFSA FCS to work hard tomitigate the worst aspects of these onslaughts. Our biggest effort was put into working the Hill and the administration to gain greater recognition, while pushing the necessity and importance of budget increases. In a surprising turnaround, aided by the effective use of AFSA’s tools —AFSA-PAC and help from our stakeholders, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce —we were success- ful in securing an increase in our annual budget, even as many government agencies suffered decreases. The extra $10 million was mostly due to the direct intervention of the House Appropriations Committee and its chairman, Frank Wolf, R-Va.,—a true friend of FCS. The additional funds al- lowed us to reinstate employee awards, a canceled program AFSA fought for. We should take great satisfaction from the fact that many significant allies weighed in on our behalf, including the Dis- trict Export Councils, National Association of Manufactur- ers, Business Council on International Understanding and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Our FCS leadership—As- sistant Secretary for Trade Promotion and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service Suresh Kumar and Deputy Director General Ambassador Charles A. Ford — had to fight to make sure the funding that Congress in- tended for us reaches the FCS. We started the year with a big boost fromPresident Barack Obama,with the promise of an effective trade reorganization. We spent considerable time chasing down that rabbit (meet- ing with the Office of Management and Budget four times), but what had been advertised as amajor initiative ended up as just anotherWeb site. However, there are rumors that some- thingmore substantial may yet happen, sowe will continue to track developments, though the odds are against any trade re- organization happening in an election year. Meanwhile, the substantial work that needs to be done to protect our rights, promotion potential and future organi- zation in the midst of downsizing and regionalization con- tinues. Regionalization will bring much change and our budget woes will continue, but we can take heart that we have many friends who believe in our mission. We have a leadership who fight hard for us internally, has always been open and attentive to AFSA’s concerns, and keeps the wel- fare of our organization first in their minds. FCS: Ending on a Positive Note B Y K EITH C URTIS , AFSA FCS VP