The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2008

years AFSA-PAC has made a real, tangible difference in our ability to pro- mote our legislative agenda. We play- ed a role in winning support for the Diplomatic Readiness Initiative, which substantially increased resources for the State Department. And we’ve played a very big part in the fight for overseas compara- bility pay, a battle we’re still fighting. Two other points: AFSA- PAC’s impact is cumulative over time. You have to be patient and keep working at it. We have a good case to make to Congress, both on resources and on over- seas comparability pay, and I am confident that sooner or later, we’re going to get over the hur- dles. FSJ: You also cited financial strength. As a past AFSA presi- dent and treasurer, and a current member of the Finances and Audit Committee, talk a bit about the orga- nization’s progress since it became a union in 1973. TDB: When AFSA became a union 35 years ago, our audit fit on a single page. Our staff was one officer and two others, and most of the work was done by volunteers. Obviously, we’ve grown in every sense. We now have a large staff and a $3.5 million operation. But all of these changes happened more quickly than AFSA developed the ability to cope with them in a professional way. After I retired from the Foreign Service in 1985, I spent several years in the private sector. When Tex Har- ris asked me to become treasurer in 1995, I saw an opportunity to put into practice the financial lessons I had learned. At the time, AFSA had less than $2 million in the scholarship fund, no reserve fund, and neither organiza- tion nor discipline in its financial man- agement. Today we have over $6 mil- lion in the scholarship fund, $2 mil- lion in the reserve fund, an annual J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 15 Ambassador Thomas Boyatt.