The Foreign Service Journal, September 2007

S E P T EMB E R 2 0 0 7 / F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L 71 A F S A N E W S of the dissent winners. Amb. Holmes told the assembled guests that there were six strong nomina- tions for theWilliamR. Rivkin Award for ConstructiveDissent by amid-level officer, and the Rivkin family had generously agreed to support the selectionof twowin- ners and to award the full $2,500 prize to each. Unfortunately, there were no valid nominations for the other three dissent awards. TheWilliamR. RivkinAward was establishedbyRivkin’swidow, EnidLong, in1967. Followingher death several years ago, the four Rivkin children agreed to contin- ue the family’s support for the award. The two Rivkin awards were presented byRobert Rivkin, the son of Amb. Rivkin. Ronald Capps was honored for challeng- ing the assumptions behind the U.S.-sup- portedpeaceplan forDarfur in2006, while serving inSudan. Michael Zorickwas hon- ored for his dissent on U.S. counterter- rorism efforts in Somalia while serving in Kenya. (See the profiles of all the award winners beginning on page 66.) Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger presented theLifetimeContri- butions toAmericanDiplomacyAward to Ambassador Joan M. Clark, for her out- standing service during 44 years in the Foreign Service and in retirement, where she continued to be a strong advocate for the Foreign Service community. Eagle- burger,whoclearlyknowsAmb.Clarkwell, said that he couldn’t think of anyone who deserves the award more. He said that Amb. Clark — whom he referred to as “Joanie”—has always beena strong leader, noting that her integrity, discretion, patience and wisdom are legendary. He described her contributions to diplomacy and to the enhancement and profession- alismof the career ForeignService. Inpar- ticular, he praisedherwork in establishing and leading the Senior Living Foundation, which assists retirees and their spouses, as an illustration of “her deep commitment to our profession.” Amb. Holmes presented two Special AwardsofAppreciation, one toFayeBarnes for her work as customer service coordi- nator in theOffice of Retirement, andone to Robert Wozniak, for his eight years as the chairman of the AFSA Election Committee. Among performance award-winners, JudiMarquardt of EmbassyYaoundewon theAvis BohlenAward for volunteerwork by a family member. Unable to attend in person, her daughters Kaia and Kelsey accepted the award on her behalf from Mary Fisk, the great granddaughter of Averell Harriman. TheM. JuanitaGuessAward for a com- munity liaison officer went to Linda Lockwood of Embassy Pretoria, who was also unable to attend the ceremony. JonClements present- ed the award to co-CLO Lucy Neher, who accepted the awardon behalf of Lockwood. Runner-up Jennifer Mauldin of Consulate GeneralChennaiwas asked tostand for an acknowledgement of her own service. The Delavan Award to a Foreign Service office management specialist was awarded toMargaret Baker of EmbassyTel Aviv,whowas alsounable toattend the cer- emony. Amb. WilliamHarrop presented the award toMariamAbdulle, whoaccept- ed on Baker’s behalf. Delavan runner-up Robyn Davis of Embassy Guatemala City was asked to stand to be acknowledged. As the ceremony drew to a close, Sec. Eagleburger returned to the podium to comment ondissent. “The fact of themat- ter,” he said, “[is that] this Foreign Service of ours needs more dissenters, not fewer. And it needs to encourage them, not dis- courage them. And if there were more of that, maybe we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in right now.” Awards Ceremony • Continued from page 66 RivkinDissent AwardWinner RonaldCapps (right) accepting his award from Robert Rivkin, son of Amb. William R. Rivkin. A full house for the June Awards Ceremony. year limit and to stop giving any special waiver consideration to employees whose motive for wanting to stay inWashington is to allowa teenage sonor daughter to fin- ish his/her senior year in high school; 2) To apply the new 15-percent fair- share threshold (whichAFSAagreed to last year) retroactively . AFSA conducted an electronic opin- ion poll of active-duty State members in March/April, which generated nearly 2,000 responses and revealed a wide range of differing priorities within our mem- bership on these issues. Whilemost clear- ly believe, as do we, that the Foreign Service must play a leading role in responding to the many challenges fac- ing our country overseas and that Foreign Service assignment rules should reflect these new realities, there was widespread concern about the unfairness of applying new rules retroactively, with no “grand- fathering” for employees who hadmade careful, good-faith bidding decisions based on existing rules. Many also expressed reservations about the increas- ingly coercive nature of the assignment rules, the loss of control over career paths, and the ever-more-daunting obstacles to maintaining a family in the Foreign Service as these rules have evolved. The survey results highlighted a grow- Fair Share• Continued from page 63 Continued on page 73 MIKKELA THOMPSON MIKKELA THOMPSON