The Foreign Service Journal, March 2012

M A R C H 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 53 A FSA USAID saw a significant increase in ac- tion in 2011 as a result of new employees hired through the Development Leadership Initiative program. Thankfully, the agency has added more than 800 new DLI positions to build up our understaffed, direct-hire Foreign Service force. Although this is short of the plan to double USAID’s Foreign Service ranks from approximately 1,200 to 2,400 FSOs over a four- to five-year period — a plan agreed to by Congress — we find ourselves more than halfway there. Further increases in staff will, of course, depend on future federal budgets, which are now severely restricted. Working with other AFSAmember agencies, we have suc- cessfully protected previous gains in Overseas Comparabil- ity Pay. For now, OCP remains close to 16 percent, but our goal is to match the full locality pay for Washington, D.C. Lobbying efforts on the Hill included AFSA’s well-publi- cized rallies — shown on local and national news outlets — to protest possible government shutdowns and to protect foreign affairs funding. While AFSA USAID spends much of its time with mem- bers requiring personal, one-on-one assistance, we are also intensely involved in monitoring the functions and policies within the agency in areas such as bureau and mission reor- ganizations, teleworking, assignments, performance board reviews of employee evaluations, disciplinary actions, retire- ment procedures, safety, security and staffing issues. Even in areas that are non-negotiable, the new, presiden- tially mandated Labor Management Forum allows AFSA to be informed and consulted on issues affecting employees. We look forward to continuing to represent your interests in 2012. ANNUAL REPORT American Foreign Service Association 2011 A F S A N E W S USAID: Promoting Your Interests B Y F RANCISCO Z AMORA , AFSA USAID VP I n 2011, AFSA FAS Vice President Henry Schmick moved on to a well-deserved assignment as head of the FAS office in Guatemala and I returned from Argentina to take over as AFSA Vice President for the Foreign Agricultural Service. Andrew Burst was elected as the new representative for FAS. The agency has continued to face challenges. According to the annual “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” report, pub- lished by the Partnership for Public Service, FAS’s ranking fell to 233 (out of 241 agencies). Since the survey re- sults were made public, there has been a major change in upper management, with career FSO Sue Heinen taking over as acting administrator. She has made it clear that she will be focusing more on the traditional function of FAS as a trade agency, which should help to relieve some of the confusion in recent years over the role of FAS. We also face challenges specific to the FS. In recent years. For instance, FAS downsized our Senior Foreign Service. In our up-or-out system, this means that more people at all levels face involuntary separation. By the end of 2015, a quarter of the 170 FSOs in FAS face the possibility of invol- untary separation due to time-in-class or time-in-service restrictions. While some may be given promotions, most will not. This will have a major impact on a relatively small agency, since we already have a shortage of officers to fill overseas positions at the FS-1 and FS- 2 levels. FAS has filled these gaps by having SFS officers do downward stretches to cover some of the FS-1 positions and mandating upward stretches for lower-level officers (36 percent of the FS-1 positions overseas are filled by FS-2 officers). However, this is not a viable long-term solution. AFSA has stepped up lobbying on behalf of the Foreign Service, with new resources added to our congressional li- aison staff. This proved critical in maintaining current Overseas Comparability Pay in the face of efforts by Con- gress to cut the budget by reducing pay to federal employ- ees. FAS: A Year of Transition and Challenges B Y D AVID M ERGEN , AFSA FAS VP AFSA has stepped up lobbying on behalf of the Foreign Service, with new resources added to our congressional liaison staff.