The Foreign Service Journal, July/August 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2018 77 AFSA NEWS AFSA NEWS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION AFSA Foreign Service Day Activities Accompany State Department Homecoming Event On May 3, AFSA held a series of events for members visiting Washington, D.C., to participate in the May 4 Foreign Service Day “home- coming” and AFSAmemo- rial ceremony at the State Department. AFSA hosted an all-day open house at the headquar- ters building on E Street. During the open house, pho- tographer Joaquin Sosa was on hand to take professional head shots of AFSAmem- bers that they can use for resumes, social media sites and outreach on behalf of AFSA and the Foreign Service. Janeen Shaffer of Shaf- fer Coaching and Consult- ing spoke to a packed room of 50 people about how to construct the perfect bio. She discussed the differences between mini-bios of one or two sentences, 200-word short bios and longer one- page bios, explaining how to arrange the information in an eye-catching manner. A video of the event can be viewed at www.afsa.org/video. AFSA staff members Christine Miele and Julie Nutter conducted a seminar for Foreign Service retirees on how to advocate for the Foreign Service within their local communities (see p. 89 for more). Ambassador (ret.) Vicki Huddleston gave a Book Notes talk on her newest book, Our Woman in Havana: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of America’s Long Struggle with Castro’s Cuba (see p. 88 for the story). For the third year in a row, AFSA asked our retirees to send letters to the editors of their local papers on the occasion of Foreign Service Day explaining the impor- tance of diplomacy to others in their communities (see p. 87 for more on that story). Throughout the day, attendees were able to order barbecue or enjoy ice cream sandwiches from the food trucks parked right outside. n AFSA/DONNAGORMAN Photographer Joaquin Sosa took professional headshots of more than 200 AFSAmembers. Pictured are retired FSO Eugene Bird and Harriet Mayor Fulbright. Captain Cookie passed out free ice cream sandwiches to attendees. AFSA employee Perri Green and her spouse Terry catch up with FSO Dan Martinez at AFSA’s homecoming reception. AFSA/DONNAGORMAN AFSA/JOAQUINSOSA