The Foreign Service Journal, September 2007

72 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / S E P T EMB E R 2 0 0 7 A F S A N E W S Governing Board • Continued from page 63 I t took about 18months to get here, but I can now let you know that AFSA and Director General Israel Hernandez have signed a memo- randumof understanding resolving two issues that were part of the fall 2005midterm proposals fromAFSA. The first proposal concerned negotiating new and clearer rules for the time-in-class policy for mandatory retirement (as detailed on the OurPlace Intranet). Sections 7 and 8 have been revised by management. The previous policy—especially as it applied to FS-1s who had opened their win- dow for promotion into the Senior Foreign Service and thereby created a 10-year TIC “limit” —was confusing and unclear with respect to how this TIC limit relat- ed to the single-class TICand the so-calledTIS (total time inService). HumanResources was interpreting the Section 8 “exceptions” to TIC time as applying only to the TIC and not to the TIC limit. TheMOU and new policy provide that the exceptions will apply to the TIC, the TIC limit and the TIS simultaneously. It also removes certain ambiguities concerningTICexceptions for the AFSA VP and representative. Our second proposal concerned a pre- vious policy that in order to be eligible for language-incentive pay, an officer had to be tested at FSI, even if that officer hadbeen trained at a non-FSI facility such as Diplomatic Language Services. Further, the policy discriminated between language testing for an assignment and testing for incentive pay: DLS, using the Federal Interagency Language Roundtable Pro- ficiency Scale, was allowed to conduct the testing in connection with an overseas assignment — but not for incentive pay. TheMOUand newpolicy allowofficers to be tested at DLS if they were trained there or if they were trained at FSI previously, but not if they were recently trained at FSI, in which case they must be tested there. Our third proposal, which suggested minor changes to the precepts for eligibil- ity for promotion into the Senior Foreign Service based on positions and skills, was never seriously entertained bymanagement. We were promoting the radical notion that serving as a deputy chief of mission or a consul general, rather than as a senior commercial officer, should satisfy that requirement. The current policy that for pro- motion to the SFS, an FS-1 has to serve in an SCO assignment in any country—no matter how small inbudget or personnel—may be pushing officers away fromimpor- tant senior positions at headquarters, positions in the Office of Domestic Operations and in large Overseas Investment Office posts as deputy senior commercial officer. AFSA continues to believe that this precept requirement does not serve the needs of the Service or the needs of our officers, but we also believe that management will not revisit this issue without pressure from the officer corps. V.P. VOICE: FCS BY DON BUSINGER MOU Signed on TIC and Language-Incentive Pay been “a delight” to findAFSA staffedwith dedicated employees with years of expe- rience andan institutionalmemory rare in the ever-rotating Foreign Service. Incoming President Naland thanked theoutgoingboardandwelcomed thenew board, which includes several people from the 2005-2007 board who will con- tinue to serve. The newboardwastedno time getting towork. AmeetingwithSecretaryRicewas scheduled for July 26. On July 21, during its first week in office, the board held an offsite retreat to work on an action agen- da based on the Team AFSA slate priori- ties presented during the election. These priorities include: setting the right tone for dialoguewithmanagement; listening and reporting to members; securing overseas comparability pay andmore resources for diplomacy; improving overseas security; influencing Foreign Service reforminitia- tives; defending the ForeignService against outside critics; enhancing FS training; improving living conditions overseas; defending and expanding retiree benefits; expanding diplomatic privileges for spe- cialists; preserving and strengthening USAID; monitoring conditions of service at non-State agencies; improving admin- istrative accommodations forMembers of Household; updating securityprocedures; and assuring fair and equitable standards for the assignment process. The new president sent out his first AFSAnet President’sUpdate on July 19 as part of his pledge to keep members well informed of AFSA’s advocacy efforts on their behalf. Look for his updates on the AFSAWeb site at www.afsa.org. The new board wasted no time getting to work. A meeting with Sec. Rice was scheduled for July 26. On July 21, during its first week in office, the board held an offsite retreat. AFSA continues to believe that this precept requirement does not serve the needs of the Service or the needs of our officers. But we also believe that management will not revisit this issue without pressure from the officer corps.