The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2005

If the State Department is going to pay us to learn lan- guages, then we should be expected to use those lan- guages — but only if those expectations are realistic. And realistic expectations must be based on reliable ratings. Although no scoring system will ever be perfect, we should at least remove any inherent con- flicts of interest. And that means using outside examiners. David L. Gehrenbeck, Ph.D. Consulate General Melbourne Value and Respect for Training: There’s Still a Way to Go This does not relate specifically to FSI, but rather to long-term training in general. A tectonic shift was alleged to have occurred during the Powell term as Secretary of State in terms of the amount of training available and the value and respect it was accorded. I cannot speak to the amount, but it is my sense that the “value and respect” still has a long way to go. Why do I say that? I was ranked for promotion from FS-2 to -1 when the panels met in the summer of 2001. As it happened, I was the last on the list of ranked candidates and the numbers promoted were fewer than those selected for promotion — ergo, I was not promoted. This was before the new rule (which I heartily commend, by the way) in which all those selected for promotion, but not actually promoted, automatically get a Meritorious Step Increase. Since I did not, there was no way for the panels in 2002 to know that in 2001 I had been selected for promotion. F O C U S J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 39 T HE R EMINGTON A tectonic shift was alleged to have occurred during the Powell term as Secretary of State in terms of the amount of training available and the value and respect it was accorded.