The Foreign Service Journal, April 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2018 49 Not too long after I left the editorship on my own terms in 2014, the Governing Board finally did something many of us had been urging for years, which was to enforce term limits on AFSA commit- tees (a practice the FSJ Editorial Board had instituted way back in the 1980s). As a result, the entrenched critics on the Awards and Plaques Committee finally lost their stranglehold on that fiefdom. And yes, just in case you’re wonder- ing, that news brought me considerable satisfaction. Thanks for the Memories Speaking of satisfaction: Now that I’ve dished enough dirt in this article to fill several buckets, I want to end by underscoring just how grateful I am to AFSA for trusting me to shape and steer The Foreign Service Journal for more than a decade. As with any job, some days (and months and years) were better than others. And, particularly toward the end of my tenure, I frequently had to remind myself that what I was doing really was worth the angst and long hours. As I put it in my valedictory Letter from the Editor in the January-February 2014 FSJ : “I have relished the opportu- nity this job has afforded me to promote discussion and debate of issues related to foreign affairs and the Foreign Service, an institution I’ve been privileged to be associated with in various capacities for nearly 30 years.” Here’s to the Journal’s next century! n This mock FSJ cover was presented to Steve Honley on his departure.