The Foreign Service Journal, May 2006

Our CDP should also require training in specific systems that need to be mastered, such as ILMS, a world-standard application that all GSO functions revolve around. How can one advance professionally without mastering such applica- tions? Robert F. Loveless General Services Officer Montevideo u Remember the LNAs I’ve been with the State Department here in Afghanistan for almost two years, and before that I was posted with USAID here. Since the breakup of the for- mer Yugoslavia, I’ve been fortunate enough to serve in both short- and long-term State Department assignments — always in transitional countries (either post-conflict or post-communist) — and most often in some kind of State- supported “nationbuilding” work: political development, electoral and governance capacity-building, media and message creation, etc. As Secretary Rice and others contemplate the person- nel needs and career development challenges for the Global Diplomatic Repositioning Initiative and “transfor- mational diplomatic” missions, I encourage State to be creative and novel in its recruitment of personnel. There are many specialists such as myself who have served State repeatedly as Limited Non-Career Appointees and would love to continue our work with the department. For example, I’d like to convert my LNA time (as an FS-1 political officer) into a position as an FSO — but no such opportunity exists for me. There is also no database of people like myself who could be deployed in some of these circumstances. After each of our major “foreign policy interventions” (Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq ...), the department loses the expertise of LNAs. These employees have substantial experience in for- eign policy — particularly in the new transitional, post- conflict statebuilding and counterterrorism arena — but their time and talents are lost to State once the appointment ends. Most traditional FSOs do not have that specialized depth of expertise but are great political generalists. Their skills, however, will not be suffi- cient for the Global Repositioning Initiative or for our democracy and counterterrorism needs. Taking the Foreign Service exam to start out as a junior officer is not the answer to filling the HR openings for political specialists needed in our new world. I urge State to cre- ate a mechanism to hire back or retain LNAs as full-fledged Foreign Service Specialists — particularly those who have the skills to conduct transformational diplomacy. Deborah Alexander Senior Political/Election Adviser/SCA Kabul u Causes for Concern Here are some of my concerns about the new Office Management Specialist CDP. Will OMSs actually receive the full six to eight months of training time needed to get a 2/2 in any language, or will those bidding on those types of jobs be passed over for not having the language? Will early departures or late arrivals to post be accepted or looked upon as negative when the OMS wants the language? Maybe all posts requiring 2/2 fluency should be adver- tised one year in advance. That way, anyone wanting that position would have ample time to get the training, as happens with generalists. This would make the selection process more equal instead of taking only the person who already has the language so the post doesn’t have to do without an OMS. The department says, “A fully successful OMS career can culminate at FS-4, and this rank at retirement rep- resents real achievement and service to the United States.” But how many people will take our CDP seri- ously? I mean, you really can’t say that if I don’t get the training I won’t get promoted, because we are only expected to move up two grade levels over a 20- to 30- year career. My biggest complaint, and again I quote the depart- ment, is that OMSs must “obtain MOS certification, Specialist level, in all of the following: MS Word 2003; MS Outlook 2003; MS Excel 2003; MS PowerPoint 2003; and completion of CableXpress training for end-users. (Note: F O C U S 30 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 6 “As a GSO specialist I feel that I am inherently disadvantaged by the CDP.” — Robert Loveless, GSO