The Foreign Service Journal, September 2006

maintenance and organization. The knowledge and documentation I brought from FSI/SAIT helped me perform radio tasks effectively. I don’t think it is fair to blame only the training if an IMSer is not function- ing effectively in his or her position. Isn’t it also a part of the job of the senior IMS or information program officer to provide on-the-job training for a new hire? I’m fortunate to have an information programming officer who taught me many things needed to be an effective IMSer. Without my IPO’s guidance, all the training in FSI/SAIT wouldn’t have been as effective. First-time IMSers need to learn where to get help. Sometimes assis- tance can be found through the “InfoCenter” rather than from col- leagues in the IMS world. There are issues that we can’t resolve within the embassy, so we need assistance from the InfoCenter. We new IMSers should be asking ourselves these questions: Are man- agers at post providing good on-the- job training and are they providing a clear picture of expectations? Where is the best place to go for assistance? And (especially because of the men- tion of leaving the Service after one or two tours), why did we join the Foreign Service? For most of us, it was to serve our country. Hector Matienzo IMS Consulate Jeddah Credit for 1970s Editor Newhall It is with great sadness that I read of the death of Shirley Newhall, editor of the Foreign Service Journal for almost 20 years. While her son did a wonderful job describing his mother’s tenure at the helm of the Journal (Appreciation, May), I think that there is a rather vital part of her story which needs to be told. I knew Shirley from early on in her tenure at the Journal . She was con- tent to work diligently and quietly behind the scenes and laid the foun- dation for making the magazine what it is today. During the 1970s, when I had a rotation tour back in Washing- ton, she persuaded me to run for the AFSA Governing Board (earlier, I had been an appointed member). With no overseas assignment in sight, I found it hard to refuse her nudging. During that election there was a three-way race for president. The group that won the presidency was headed by someone who had been selected out of the Foreign Service, was exceedingly conservative in his views on all manner of issues, and demanded that the Governing Board be in lockstep with him. Moreover, he wanted to use AFSA and the Journal as a vehicle to express his right-wing views and rehash his selec- tion-out case. Neither the Governing Board nor the Editorial Board would approve such tactics. Various lawsuits fol- lowed, some initiated against Shirley Newhall and the Journal . We all held fast to our positions. Ultimately, thanks to Shirley’s help, the whole group was removed. Together with AFSA’s capable general counsel and several Governing Board members, Shirley orchestrated the scenario leading to the recall of the AFSA president. She insisted that the entire distasteful procedure had to be procedurally and legally correct. Furthermore, without her, the unbi- ased story of this episode in the life of AFSA would never have been told. Thanks to her, the Journal not only 8 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 6 L E T T E R S