The Foreign Service Journal, March 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2020 61 AFSA NEWS In the summer of 2019, we surveyed our members on their satisfaction with AFSA, and contributed to outreach presentations during Foreign Service Day in 2017 and 2018. Finance and Administration The American Foreign Service Association con- tinued to be in excellent financial health as we entered 2019 with a strong reserve. AFSA went through major restructuring in the last three years as we worked rigorously to find efficiencies in opera- tions from 2016 to 2019. The board has approved a 2020 budget with pru- dent spending reductions. Recognizing that we will need sufficient resources to meet the challenges facing the Foreign Service, we will continue the effort to create more efficient operations in the years ahead. With the strong support of our membership, we were able to sustain a professional staff of 32 and a planned $5.2 million operating budget for the calendar year 2019. We continue to maintain AFSA assets, the building and equipment with atten- tion to repairs and prompt maintenance. We ended 2018 with an operating reserve of $3.1 million, scholarship fund of $9.7 million, Sinclaire Fund of $477,094 and Fund for American Diplomacy of $413,964. Publications / The Foreign Service Journal The 2017-2019 Governing Board term was a busy time with an elevated public pro- file for The Foreign Service Journal, which celebrated its centennial year in 2019. To mark the occasion, the publications team created and produced The Foreign Service Journal Centennial Exhibit: Defining Diplomacy for 100 Years. The 29-panel exhibit of images and excerpts drawn from the archives of the FSJ was on display at the National Museum of Ameri- can Diplomacy (formerly the U.S. Diplomacy Center) for more than two months, from a launch event in March through the Foreign Affairs Day reception at the site in May. Beginning in 2017 and completed in time for the launch of the FSJ exhibit, AFSA funded and imple- mented a major digitization project. The fully search- 2019 Youth Awards winners pose with AFSA President Barbara Stephenson (second from left) in June 2019 at a ceremony in the State Department’s George C. Marshall Center. AFSA/JOAQUINSOSA Former FSJ editors Steve Honley and Steven Dujack examine a panel of The Foreign Service Journal’ s Centennial Exhibit, “Defining Diplomacy for 100 Years,” at the U.S. Diplomacy Center in March 2019. AFSA/JOAQUINSOSA GOVERNING BOARD REPORT 2017-19