The Foreign Service Journal, May 2006

ment means serving at a hardship post for a full tour. A frequent question the drafting committees received from the field was how this differs from the fair-share bidding requirement. Whereas fair share requires only that a liable bidder put down hardship posts on a bid list, the CDP requires going to a hardship post for a full tour. Specifically, the CDP requires that the members of nearly every Foreign Service skill group serve a minimum of one tour after tenure at a post where the post differen- tial (or hardship differential, as many call it), and the applicable danger pay, if any, amount to at least 15 percent. There are three exceptions. Physicians must serve at a 20-percent hardship post. They actually made that choice themselves, recognizing that nearly all their posts are at least the 15-percent level, and 20 percent is the minimal rating for their unusually-hard posts list. The Security Engineering Officers have relatively few posts of assign- ment where the differential is 15 percent and the Diplo- matic Couriers have no such posts of assignment. Instead of developing a separate criterion for these two groups, they were exempted from 15-percent tours. Members of both skill groups do, however, travel extensively and for long periods of time in regions characterized by harsh and difficult conditions. Counting Requirements All generalists and most specialists have four mandato- ry requirements, one for each of the CDP principles. GSOs and OMSs have five mandatory requirements to fulfill, while Diplomatic Security Special Agents have six. The range of electives goes from five to 10, depending on the skill group. Foreign Service Construction Engine- ers are at the low end of the scale, with Financial Manage- ment Officers at the high end. Typically, the CDP will ask that a relatively new member of the Foreign Service choose and meet between 60 percent and 70 percent of the elective requirements available to that skill group. For those people who have a longer trajectory in the Service, there is a grandfathering schedule for each skill group, which they should read carefully. (ALDAC cables F O C U S M A Y 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 35