The Foreign Service Journal, April 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2015 79 AFSA NEWS AFSA COMMUN I TY: A NEW WAY TO ENGAGE NEWS BRIEF AFSA Honors Matilda W. Sinclaire Language Award Recipients Foreign language proficiency is one of the most impor- tant skills in today’s Foreign Service, essential not only to professional development but also to personal security. Annually, the American Foreign Service Associa- tion recognizes outstanding accomplishment in the study of a Category III or IV lan- guage and its associated cul- ture through the Matilda W. Sinclaire Language Awards. AFSA established this program in 1982, thanks to a bequest from Matilda W. Sinclaire, a former Foreign Service officer, “to promote and reward superior achieve- ment by career officers of the Foreign Service [...] while studying one of the Category III or IV languages under the auspices of the Foreign Service Institute.” More than $260,000 has been awarded to those Foreign Service members who have received recognition for their superior language skills through this program. Any career or career-con- ditional member of the For- eign Service from the Depart- ment of State, U.S. Agency for International Develop- ment, Foreign Commercial Service, Foreign Agricultural Service, Broadcasting Board of Governors or Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is eligible for the award. Candidates may be nominated by the language- training supervisors at the FSI School of Language, the language instructors at field schools, or post language officers. Recipients are selected by a committee comprising the dean of the FSI School of Language Studies (or desig- nee), representatives of the AFSA Governing Board, the AFSA Awards and Plaques Committee and the general AFSA membership. Each recipient receives $1,000 and a certificate of recognition signed by the AFSA president and the chair of the AFSA Awards committee. For further information on the Sinclaire Awards, please AFSA is rolling out a new way for members to partici- pate and stay connected with each other and with us. In the online AFSACommunity, members can post comments, exchange ideas and communicate with one another in a closed environment accessible only to other AFSAmembers. The AFSA Community is now holding its first discussion on the AFSA 2015 Governing Board elec- tion and bylaw amendment. Use the community to discuss a candidate’s platform and positions on issues facing the Foreign Service or specific career and professional concerns. You can also weigh the pros and cons of the proposed bylaw amendment to rightsize the AFSA Governing Board in 2017. Access this discussion by logging into the members-only area of the AFSA website and click- ing on “AFSA Community” in the blue navigation tab at the top of the page. (You must have a personal email address stored in your contact information to access the AFSA Community because work email addresses ending in .gov are inaccessible in the AFSA Community.) Once on the AFSA Community page, join the AFSA 2015 Governing Board Election & Bylaw Amendment community to get started. We hope the AFSA Community provides a meaning- ful way to share your thoughts and collaborate with your colleagues. As our recent survey (see p. 71) showed, AFSA members want opportunities to actively participate, par- ticularly when serving outside the Washington, D.C., area. We are optimistic that this new benefit will allow members to participate in AFSA no matter where they are living. Questions and comments can be sent to member@afsa. org, with the subject line “AFSA Community.” n contact AFSA’s Coordinator for Special Awards and Out- reach Perri Green at green@ afsa.org or (202) 719-9700. The 2014 Sinclaire Award recipients, all AFSAmembers, are: Alexander Bellah, Russian John Ceballos-Rivera, Arabic Rafael Diaz, Greek Karen Glocer, Arabic Jonathan Herzog, Lithuanian Maciej Luczywo, Georgian Rebecca Owen, Icelandic Martin Thomen, Turkish Elizabeth Threlkeld, Pashto Brian Timm-Brock, Hebrew