The Foreign Service Journal, April 2016

48 APRIL 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL FCS VP VOICE | BY STEVE MORRISON AFSA NEWS Views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the AFSA FCS VP. Contact: steve.morrison@trade.gov or (202) 482-9088 The May issue of The Foreign Service Journal will focus on “Life After the Foreign Service.” Since the bimonthly FCSVP Voice column is not scheduled to appear in May, consider this my contribution to the discus- sion on retirement. Historically, the end of the calendar year has been a good time for people to retire. Doing so allows officers to “cash in” on any unused annual leave, pay off that nagging mortgage, go on a trip or buy that fancy new car they’ve always wanted. As 2015 drew to a close, I saw a lot of Commercial Service retirements, which Life After the Commercial Service allowed me to catch up with a large number of former CS officers who had trav- eled to Washington, D.C., for the celebrations. From my conversations, it seems there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to FCS retirement. So, what did I learn? Based on my very unscien- tific survey, it’s anyone guess what you’ll be doing when it’s time to retire. Foreign Commercial Service retirees come in all shapes and sizes: happy, sad, angry, resigned, working, not working, playing golf, writing, fixing things up around the house, traveling, you name it. As to the myth that all FCS officers retire and go on to work for some firm or entity making big bucks in countries where they were last assigned: Hooey! Again, from my very limited sample, only one or two officers—of the dozen or so I met—were in any way trading on the experience they gained in their last several assign- ments. Besides, there are limitations on what you can do in post-federal employ- ment, right? So what is the upshot of all of this? Plan all you want when it comes to retirement, but keep your options open—fully twice as many senior-level (FS-1 and above) FCS officers will age out from 2018 to 2020 compared to 2015 to 2017. Plan to attend the Foreign Service Institute’s Retire- ment Planning Seminar or Job Search Program, or both. Visit www.state.gov/m/fsi/ for a schedule, and send an email to Tyler.Glofelty@trade. gov to register. If retiring in the greater Washington, D.C., area, keep in mind the possibil- ity of serving on the Foreign Service Grievance Board or on an AFSA committee, and don’t forget to proactively sign up for the reduced AFSA membership rate for retirees at retiree@afsa.org. n AFSAGoverning Board Meeting: February 3, 2015 Consent Agenda: On a motion from State Representa- tive Erin O’Connor, the board approved all consent agenda items. These included (1) the Jan. 6 Governing Board minutes and (2) the appointment of State Foreign Service Officer Jennifer Haskell to serve on the AFSA Profession and Ethics Committee. The motion passed unanimously. Overseas Development Program: On a motion by Retiree Vice President Tom Boyatt, the board approved a position paper regarding the Department of State’s evaluation of the Overseas Development Program (including State’s recommendation that the program be expanded from 20 to 40 positions, with five added this year). The paper— which has since been delivered to the Bureau of Human Resources—states that the AFSA Governing Board does not concur with the proposed expansion and suggests revisiting the issue only when the department (1) demon- strates that the ODP’s existing 20 positions are consis- tently filled, (2) provides clearer evidence that the ODP is meeting its stated goals, and (3) arranges for an inde- pendent cost-benefit analysis that justifies the resources expended on the program. Talent Retention: The Governing Board discussed issues of retention in the Foreign Service and the need for more reliable data on why members of the Foreign Service leave. The board agreed to form a working group that will begin to look at ways to collect data to inform decision-making related to workforce planning . n