The Foreign Service Journal, April 2008

A s FCS lurches toward the close of the 2008 bid and assign- ment cycle and the level of nail-biting rises, your AFSA VP and representative briefed FCSmanagement on high- lights of our most recent member survey: Asked “How would you judge current U.S. Commercial Service morale?” only 2 percent of respondents thought it was excellent. A majority — 57 percent — thought it was fair or poor. The survey results show that many factors weigh on morale, including: • Lack of comparability or locality pay for FS-1s and below overseas; • An assignment process that was highly delayed this time and had very questionable features appearing to flout long-estab- lished rules (the subject of an institutional grievance filedbyAFSA in December 2007); • Lack of adequate resources (personnel and budget) to do our jobs, even as we see bigger Foreign Service agencies like State and USAID request Fiscal Year 2009 increases of between 15 and 30 percent, while commercial diplomacy and export pro- motion get short shrift; and • In some cases, less than excellent support and service inhead- quarters fromthe offices we depend on (such as OFSHR, CDAS andOPD) for personnel operations, assignments, consultations and training. In fact, a full two-thirds — 67 percent — of the 120 FCS officers who participated in the survey believe that overall conditions of work for the Foreign Service are worsening, judging from responses to the follow- ing question: At the present time, do you believe that the overall conditions of work for the professional Foreign Service are improving, wors- ening, or remaining the same? Number of Percentage of Responses Respondents Improving 10 8 Worsening 80 67 Remaining the same 30 25 Total 120 100 The jury is still out on domestic assignments, the seven-year rule, the 15-year rule and other pending issues, as we have dis- cussed in previous columns and AFSAnets. Discussions with management onour spring 2006midtermproposal drag onwith little concrete progress to report and continued divisions with- in management on these issues. Both StephenAnderson and I aremoving on in a fewmonths, both of us to “OldEurope”—he toDublin and I to Switzerland. We’ll keep youpostedonprogress finding successors out there for back here in D.C. V.P. VOICE: FCS BY DON BUSINGER FCS Working Conditions “Worsening” A P R I L 2 0 0 8 / F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L 57 A F S A N E W S BPA WORLDWIDE COMPLETES FSJ AUDIT Journal Circulation Tops 15,000 BY ED MILTENBERGER, CIRCULATION MANAGER T he ForeignService Journal was recent- ly audited for membership by BPA Worldwide, a firm whose media audits track circulation based on busi- ness/distribution, demographics and geo- graphic coverage for some2,500mediaout- lets. BPAdetermined that the total number of subscribers to the Journal is 15,106. Sixty percent of themare active-duty employees of the fiveU.S. foreignaffairs agencies, both generalists and specialists. The remaining subscribers areForeignService retirees,Civil Service employees and members of the public, libraries, universities andother insti- tutions, aswell asmembersofCongress and senior foreign affairs officials. “I am delighted to see the Foreign Service Journal cross the 15,000-circulation mark for the first time,” says AFSA President JohnNaland, “and to do sowith certification by the prestigious BPA Worldwide circulation auditing firm. This independent verification of the higher circulation level will help the Journal attract more advertisers, providing read- ers withmore information on goods and services of particular interest to them. It will also increase the revenues that help finance publication of the Journal .” Inaddition, the audit reportwill be list- ed in Standard Rate and Data Service. SRDS connects buyers and sellers of mediabyoffering comprehensive coverage of traditionalmedia aswell as today’s alter- native marketing opportunities. “We are pleased that the ForeignService Journal has successfully completed the cir- culationaudit and isnowamemberofBPA Worldwide,” says BPAWorldwide’s pres- ident and CEO, Glenn Hanson. “We applaud the association for providing current andprospective advertiserswith the solid assurance of an independent circula- tion audit conducted according to our world-respected, uncompromising stan- dards. WithaBPAaudit,mediabuyers can be confident that circulation claims are accurate, and that theyhave theverifieddata that theyneed toassess apublication’s effec- tiveness in serving its market.” “Our firm commitment to our mem- bers, readers andadvertisers, reflected in the FSJ ’s strong growth, will be enhanced by our membership in BPA,” says AFSA Executive Director John Mamone.