The Foreign Service Journal, April 2004

A FSA is justifiably proud of the fact that membership is at an all-time high: 12,474. The number of active- duty members is also at an all-time high: 74 percent of State Foreign Service employees, 72 percent of USAID and a whopping 86 percent of the FCS. Eighty-five percent of new entrants into the Service now routinely join AFSA, compared to 45 percent just a decade ago. Howmany retired members are there? There are currently 3,770, only a quar- ter of the estimated total number of retired Foreign Service personnel, 14,342. If we assume that approximately 70 percent of retirees were once AFSA mem- bers, that means that there are over 6,200 retirees out there who let their member- ship lapse when they retired or sometime afterwards. That’s 6,000 people who don’t receive the Retiree Directory, the Foreign Service Journal , AFSANews , and the Retiree Newsletter , don’t have access to AFSA insurance programs and don’t have the option of seeking AFSA assistance with insurance, annuity or benefits issues. It’s easy to speculate on reasons why many retirees let membership lapse. Some retirees may simply want to close completely the Foreign Service chapter of their lives. Some specialists may have felt that AFSAwas an offi- cer-run, officer-oriented organization with lit- tle relevance to their concerns. However hard we have worked to change that image in recent years, perceptions often outlive the reality. Some may feel the dues are more than they can afford, even scaled as they are to annuity levels. Some thought their membership would automatically continue after they retired, and never renewed it when active-duty payroll deductions ceased. What’s harder to do is to find new ways to reach those old friends who have left us. AFSA President John Limbert and the retired members on the AFSA Governing Board are all ready and able to visit the retiree organizations around the country and talk about what AFSA is doing and why it matters to retirees. AFSA is always represented at the department’s retirement seminars. We do an annu- al membership appeal to all retirees. We are working on improvements to the retiree page of the AFSA Web site. We encourage retiree members to help us recruit retiree colleagues back into AFSA. We welcome your ideas and suggestions on what more we can do to reach our former colleagues, and in particular how we can improve AFSA’s services to retirees. (Send your suggestions and comments to jones@afsa.org.) W e are well aware that it’s the services we provide that, in the end, are the best membership draw of all. ▫ Note : The very real prospect of increasing congressional pressure to cut federal retiree benefits underscores the importance of AFSA’s role in protecting your hard-earned bene- fits. AFSAworks activelywith other retiree organizations to protect federal annuities, COLAs and health benefits. Bonnie Brown, our Retiree Affairs Coordinator, provides assistance withannuity, Social Security, andother retirement issues toover 40members amonth.Contact her at brown@afsa.org or (800) 704-2372, ext. 528. We encourage retiree members to help us recruit their retiree colleagues back into AFSA. V.P. VOICE: RETIREE BY GEORGE JONES Where Have All The Members Gone? 6 AFSA NEWS • APRIL 2004 USAID & the Millennium Challenge Account Following several months of rela- tive inactivity on the Millennium Challenge Account, AFSA is pleased to report that Congress passed the Omnibus Appropriations Bill that includes both the funding and the authorization for the MCA. In line with expectations, a total of $1 bil- lion was budgeted for MCA-related activities, including the establishment of the MillenniumChallenge Corporation. The requirements for eligibility are laid out in this act (H.R. 2673), and the structure of the corporation is outlined. One section (Title VI, Section 615) defines how the MCC will cooperate with the U.S. Agency for International Development, an issue that is of par- ticular concern to AFSA and AFSA members. Included is a requirement for coor- dination, which states that “The Chief Executive Officer shall consult with the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development in order to coordinate the activities of the Corporation with the activities of the Agency.” In addi- tion, it states that “The Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development shall seek to ensure that appropriate programs of the Agency play a primary role in preparing candidate countries to become eligible countries.” At the first MCA board meeting on Feb. 2, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs Alan Larson was appointed interimCEO of the MCC. The MCC is temporarily located in the USA Today building in Rosslyn, Va. U/S Larson hosted a briefing on the MCA at the Foreign Press Center on Feb. 3. To read the transcript and learn more about the MCA, please go to http://fpc.state.gov/28839.htm. Briefs • Continued on page 8 AFSA NEWS BRIEFS Continued from page 2