The Foreign Service Journal, September 2003

38 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 3 ffice Management Specialists are a restless crew, always looking for ways to increase their respon- sibilities, always trying to make their assignments meaningful and always interested in profes- sional development and cultural experiences. As of this writing there are 858 OMSs, thanks to the success of the Diplomatic Readiness Initiative that brought in 58 new recruits in 2002 and 80 in 2003. They have been assigned to such diverse and exciting places as Islamabad, Seoul, Tel Aviv, Moscow, Riyadh, Kathmandu, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, Nairobi, Jakarta, Shenyang, Dubai, Pretoria, Warsaw and Tokyo. In the past year, 227 of them have taken Office Management Training at FSI. Many have also attended training in the Schools of Language Studies, Leadership and Management, Professional and Area Studies and Applied Information Technology. They have served out- side their skill code as staff assistants, public diplomacy officers, consular officers, GSOs, information manage- ment specialists and personnel officers. Experiencing the Unexpected With training and new challenges come professional and personal experiences never expected. This has been the case with many Office Management Specialists who have made the Foreign Service not only their career, but also their life. One OMS was assigned to Tokyo 35 years after her father had been part of the first corps of occupation sol- diers at the end of World War II. He gave her an aged scrap of paper with a name and city written on it, and asked her to try and locate a family he had met there as a young GI. She couldn’t believe it when she actually found them, and arranged a reunion between her father and the surviv- ing family members. Working through sister-city organi- zations, she arranged for one of the sons to bring some of his award-winning photographs to the U.S. for an exhibi- tion. This experience brought the diplomatic work we do every day down to a very personal level. Who would have thought OMSs would be interior designers? Yet they refurbish, redecorate and remodel offices, redefining individual workspaces, selecting ergonomic office furniture, deciding on effective window treatments, choosing the color of carpets and picking out appropriate artwork. This helps to improve the quality of the work environment, and thus boosts employee produc- tivity and morale. Speechwriting is also something OMSs may find them- selves doing. One OMS drafted the speech for her ambas- sador to give at the annual Marine Corps ball. Another drafted the commencement address for her ambassador to give at the graduation exercises of his alma mater, where he would be receiving an honorary degree. The universi- ty had stressed the theme of “service.” She emphasized that service is not only confined to one’s own country, but applies to other countries as well. One ambassador’s OMS in a small African post coordi- nated everything for the Fourth of July celebration to which 600 persons were invited. She discussed the menu with the ambassador’s cook, worked with the Recreation Association to order all the food and drinks, arranged for a band and slide show with Public Affairs, enlisted the help of the GSO to design a podium, developed the program of events and basically ran the whole show! At another small African post, the OMS (who had a 4/4 in French) was the post biographic reporting officer, responsible for scanning all of the French-language newspapers daily, clipping pertinent information, and drafting cables. When a severe earthquake rocked El Salvador and most of Central America in January 2001, OMSs helped set up an emergency control room at the embassy. Dog F O C U S O N F S S P E C I A L I S T S O FFICE M ANAGEMENT S PECIALISTS : O N THE M OVE B Y L INDA O’B RIEN O