The Foreign Service Journal, May 2017

50 MAY 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Ms. Duvvuri worked as an economist at Booz Allen Hamilton and Pricewatehouse Coopers, providing strategy consult- ing and transfer pricing solutions to corporate clients. She holds a B.A. in political economy of industrial societies from the University of California, Berkeley, and a joint mas- ter’s degree in quantitative economics and urban and environmental policy and planning from Tufts Univer- sity. n Views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the AFSA FAS VP. Contact: mark.petry@fas.usda.gov or (202) 720-2502 FAS VP VOICE | BY MARK PETRY AFSA NEWS WashingtonWithout FSOs The recent list of jobs for Foreign Agricultural Service officers returning to Wash- ington, D.C., is extremely disappointing. For the five most-senior officers (Senior Foreign Service and FS-1) returning to work in Washington, D.C., there are only five positions available. Moreover, there are no positions available in four of the six FAS program areas. Are we facing an inten- tional effort to create disin- centives for officers to return to Washington? The answer is no, but the result is the same. A dearth of mid-level officers is the fruit of poor hiring practices AFSA’S 20 16 ANNUAL REPORT PUBL I SHED The 2016 AFSAAnnual Report is now available online at www.afsa. org/annualreport. AFSA President Ambassador Barbara Stephenson introduces the report, setting out the goals of AFSA’s Governing Board and sharing achievements and new initiatives. Contributions from the AFSA treasurer, each of the constituency vice presidents and AFSA Executive Director Ian Houston follow. The report details AFSA’s 2016 activities—from out- reach to advocacy and from publications to member engagement—with particular attention to what AFSA does to tell the Foreign Service story. To reduce costs and be eco-friendly, we are making the report available online to all members. To request a paper copy, while supplies last, please email saunders@afsa.org , with the subject line “Annual Report.” n NEWS BRIEF and the mismanagement of resources many years ago. As a result, we are down by one third in both the FS-1 and FS-2 classes. Since overseas offices must be filled, the gap in officers is in Washington. Instead of 33 percent of offi- cers serving in Washington, we now have only 16 percent. Those who do take positions in Washington generally cycle back overseas quickly. These statistics don’t change the fact that work in Washington has to be done. However, it has encouraged parochial, short-term think- ing on behalf of headquar- ters staff. Rather than being welcoming to FSOs who may hold a position only a year or two, they seem to prefer to have no FSOs at all. Instead of making extra efforts to take advantage of the benefits of having FSOs on staff, managers have sim- ply hired more civil servants. As a result, some coveted positions may not open up for FSOs for a decade or more. Not only does this not give returning officers any real choice and disregards their broad experience, it sends the message that FAS FSOs are not welcome and not valued inWashington. Management suggests they value FSO con- tributions, but their actions don’t match the rhetoric. AFSA and FAS manage- ment must develop a plan to weather this demographic crisis and maintain a vibrant FSO presence in Washington. Unfortunately, any agree- ment will likely put even more hardship on FSOs by weakening our contract language on hiring or by offering no additional human resources. However, we must try. Given both the written and social contracts that exist in our small agency, putting Washington-based FSOs into “windowless offices” is not acceptable. n AFSAWelcomes New LM Staff Member Jaya Duvvuri is the new executive assis- tant to AFSA State Vice President Angie Bryan. A Foreign Service spouse, she previously served as the Education USA adviser at Embassy Kigali, and was the treasurer for the American Employees Association of Kigali. Prior to that, she worked with Habitat for Humanity Macedonia and the United Nations Nigeria, where she provided adminis- trative and program support. Before moving overseas, Jaya Duvvuri AFSA/GEMMADVORAK