The Foreign Service Journal, April 2013

54 APRIL 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS Proficiency in foreign lan- guages is a crucial attri- bute for all Foreign Service personnel. The American Foreign Service Association’s Sinclaire Language Awards program recognizes lan- guage students for outstand- ing accomplishments in the study of a “hard” language and its associated culture. The Matilda W. Sinclaire Language Award program was established in 1982 by a bequest from Ms. Sinclaire, a former Foreign Service employee, to AFSA. The purpose of her bequest was to “promote and reward superior achievement by career officers of the Foreign Service of the United States while studying one of the ‘hard’ languages under the auspices of the Foreign Ser- vice Institute of the Depart- ment of State.” Any career-conditional Foreign Service member from the foreign affairs agen- cies (Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, Foreign Com- mercial Service, Foreign Agricultural Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the International Broadcasting Bureau) is eligible. Language-training super- visors at FSI’s School of Language Studies, language instructors at field schools AFSA Congratulates the 2012 Sinclaire Awards Winners BY PERRI GREEN, COORDINATOR FOR SPECIAL AWARDS AND OUTREACH and post language officers nominate candidates for the award. Winners are selected by a committee comprised of volunteer AFSA members, representatives from FSI, a member of the AFSA Gov- erning Board and the AFSA special awards and outreach coordinator. Winners receive a check for $1,000 and a cer- tificate of recognition signed by the AFSA president and the chair of the AFSA Awards and Plaques Committee. AFSA congratulates this year’s ten winners of the Sinclaire Language Awards and commends the School of Language Studies at FSI for its dedication in preparing students of hard languages for the intense challenges of modern diplomacy. TH I S YEAR ’S WI NNERS ARE :  Anne Casper –Kinyarwanda Vanna Chan –Lithuanian Rebecca Danis –Pashto Spencer Fields –Albanian Christina Le –Greek Dan McCandless –Dari Robert Mearkle –Arabic Nina Murray –Lithuanian Roshni Nirody –Japanese Kristen Pisani –Greek More information on the Sinclaire Awards is available at www.afsa.org/sinclaire_ language_awards.aspx. n Note: This is a continuation of the article, “AFSA Speaker Series: TSP Pre-Separation Briefing,” which appeared in the March 2013 issue of AFSA News: In order to elect an in-service withdrawal, the participant must be 59½ years of age or older. It is very important to know that an in-service withdrawal may be made only once and must be for at least $1,000 or up to the entire amount in the account. By choosing to do an in-service withdrawal, the participant is prohibited from receiving a partial post-service withdrawal after separation. Also, a mandatory 20 percent federal tax is withheld when the in-service withdrawal is sent directly to the participant. However, any amount sent to another qualified account is not taxed. For post-service withdrawals, there are several important aspects to be aware of: • Every separated participant with an account balance of less than $200 will receive an automatic cashout. • Once post-service contributions are prohibited, partici- pants may still transfer funds from their traditional IRAs or other eligible employer retirement plans. • After April 1, once a participant turns 70½ and is separated from service, he or she must take Required Minimum Distribu- tions from their TSP account. The current RMD is 3.65 percent of your account total. If participants fail to take out the RMD by April 1, they will incur an IRS penalty of 50 percent of the RMD amount. • Each year going forward after the year in which you turn 70, you must take an RMD. Therefore, it is essential to submit form TSP-70 by April 1 of the year after turning 70. A lively question-and-answer session followed Urban’s presentation. You may view the seminar at www.afsa.org/AFSAVideos. aspx. To view the presentation slides, please go to www.afsa. org/Portals/0/tsp_event_slides.pdf . For more information on the TSP, please visit www.tsp.gov. n More on Managing Your Thrift Savings Plan BY MATTHEW SUMRAK, ASSOCIATE COORDINATOR FOR RETIREE COUNSELING AND LEGISLATION Corrections to AFSA News , March 2013: Page 45: The Governing Board photo caption did not include those members not pictured: Andrew Winter, Tim Corso, Molly Williamson. Page 60: In the bottom right photo, the merit winner is Marshall Richards, not Basil Smitham. Apologies to all.