The Foreign Service Journal, May 2003

F O C U S M A Y 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 35 conditional appointment, subject to obtaining security and medical clearances. Individuals who are not selected for the Foreign Service may apply again the follow- ing year. One advantage of this system is that individuals who fail to meet FS commissioning requirements are entitled to re-employment rights within FAS at their former GS level. They are not out on the street. Also, junior officers who, after serving one tour of duty overseas, decide that a Foreign Service career is not for them, may return to the ranks of the Civil Service at the GS grade at which they left. This allows productive employees with overseas experi- ence to remain within our agency, thus benefiting our mission. Forging a Partnership Current relations between FAS Civil and Foreign Service employees are cordial and productive. This has not always been the case. In the past, differences between the two personnel systems, combined with the need to annually rotate FS officers back to headquar- ters each summer, led to heated disputes between management and the Civil Service and Foreign Service employee unions. Until about a decade ago, FS offi- cers returning to headquarters were routinely assigned to a position with little fanfare. For example, often, an incoming officer followed an outbound officer into a position. With the advent of an agency Partnership Council about 10 years ago came demands from Civil Service colleagues to change a system they perceived as covert and unfair. In response, the summer assignment process was opened to Civil Service employees who requested to rotate to a different position at the same grade or sought promotion to a higher grade. Thus was born the FAS Washington Placement Plan, or WPP as it is com- monly known. The early years of the WPP were difficult. Civil Service employees continued to push for expanded access to rotation and promotion opportunities on an annual basis. Foreign Service officers came to view the WPP as a means by which they were denied challeng- ing Washington assignments to accommodate a CS promotion or, worse, forced into positions below their grade (a situation CS employ- ees are protected from) and thus possibly disadvantaged before selection boards. Following several years of diffi- cult negotiations, which at one point caused relations between the two services to plummet to rock- bottom, a compromise was reached a few years ago. While neither employee union is com- pletely pleased with the final product, resolution of this issue has led to a significant improvement in relations between the two services. A review of the top 20 posi- tions within the agency indicates that the WPP system appears to be working: the positions are evenly divided between FS and non-FS officers, including two posi- tions held by political appointees. Starting in the 2004 cycle, new regulations will require Civil Service personnel at the GS-14 and -15 levels to rotate to different jobs, if they have been in their current position for more than six years. This means senior positions, which would otherwise prob- ably remain encumbered by Civil Service employees for years, will be available to FS personnel, those returning to headquarters and those already there. Wherever they are located, FS and CS staff work together to carry out the two-prong mission of the Foreign Agricultural Service: to expand export oppor- tunities for U.S. agricultural, fish and forest products, and to promote world food security. Carrying out this mission requires a combination of analytical, policy and marketing skills, as well as close working relations with other U.S. government agencies, state govern- ments and organizations, U.S. and foreign private sec- tor contacts, and foreign governments. And precisely because FAS is such a small agency, achieving success requires dedication and coordination from all person- nel, in the Foreign and Civil Service alike. Although they serve in the Department of Agriculture, FAS FS officers, like their colleagues in the other foreign affairs agencies, enjoy a unique lifestyle that offers significant challenges and rewards. To date, I have enjoyed the ride. I believe most of my colleagues feel the same way. A review of the top 20 positions within the agency indicates that the WPP system appears to be working.