The Foreign Service Journal, May 2015

62 MAY 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS You and Your Packout It’s getting to be that time of year again: summer transfer season is quickly approach- ing and thousands of Foreign Service employees and their families are preparing to ship their possessions all over the world. The Overseas Briefing Center, part of the Foreign Service Institute’s Transi- tion Center, should be the first stop for anyone facing a move. All U.S. government employees, contractors, and family members assigned to or returning from U.S. embassies and consulates overseas are eligible to use the OBC and take any of the Transition Center training courses. More details on the OBC and its offerings can be found at www.bit.ly/ StateOBC. In brief, the five golden rules for a successful pack- out are the following: 1. Watch your weight. Most overseas posts provide furnished housing, so the total weight you are autho- rized to ship there is 7,200 pounds. That amount is the same regardless of the num- ber of people listed on the travel orders: A single person or a family of six both will get the same 7,200 pound allotment. A separate weight allow- ance is also authorized to be shipped as unaccompanied air baggage; this amount does change based on the number of shippers. A single traveler is authorized to ship 250 pounds of UAB. The second traveler in the party is authorized to ship 200 pounds; the third traveler is authorized to ship 150; and any additional traveler can ship 100 pounds each, meaning that a family of six can ship an additional 900 pounds. Remember, too, that you cannot transfer unused UAB weight to your household effects allowance. Moving companies in the United States do not weigh each box before loading it on the truck and can only provide a final weight once the shipment has been consolidated at the warehouse. Which leads us to golden rule number two: 2. Take your time. When planning your packout from the Washington, D.C., area, make sure you leave plenty of time to check weights and inventory before you get on the plane. Remember that the moving company’s weight estimate is just that, an estimate, and it rarely comes in right on the money. So it is very important that you have time before you fly out to verify the weights of all your shipments—UAB, HHE and long-term stor- age—to make sure that you are not overweight, and time to remove items if you find that you have exceeded the weight allowance. The 10 days of per diem you are allowed before flying out will help you do this. 3. Organize and sepa- rate. Make sure you separate each category of shipment carefully. The packers will descend on you and will pack things up faster than you realize. Keep the HHE, the UAB and the storage items carefully segregated. You can mark big items with tape, but you may want to keep the smaller items in separate rooms. 4. Inventory, inventory, inventory! Make sure your inventory is as comprehen- sive as possible. Put your smart phone to use and take photos or videos of each box, if possible. A sketchy or incomplete inventory will make it difficult to cull the shipment if you’re over- weight. It will also make it hard to know what is missing if items are lost or damaged en route. So spend a little extra time to make sure your inventory is as complete as you can make it. 5. Engage the inspector. A State Department’s inspec- tor visits each packout site, probably on the first day of the process—which is likely to be before any problems have cropped up. Be sure to speak with the inspector and ask him or her to pay a sec- ond visit later on. At the very least, make sure you are able to contact the inspector in case any problems arise. n –James Yorke, AFSA Senior Labor Management Adviser, and Debra Blome, Associate Editor AAD Report continued from p. 53. the need for educational opportunities to strengthen the Foreign Service and create a “deep reservoir of top talent,” for support for strengthening Civil Service career development, and for a broad review of the State Department to “optimize its organization, management and workforce development.” The report is available to download in both abridged and full-text versions at the American Academy of Diplo- macy website (www.acad- emyofdiplomacy.org/ ). AFSA urges members to read the report. The Journal would like to facilitate discus- sion on these issues. To that end we ask readers to please send comments and feedback on the AAD report to journal@ afsa.org with subject line: AAD Report. We will compile comments and publish them in a future issue. n – Debra Blome, Associate Editor