The Foreign Service Journal, September 2008

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 8 A F S A N E W S M aybe I am being overly pessimistic, but I think the Foreign Service retiree benefits package as currently configuredmay be heading for a time of close scruti- ny on Capitol Hill. Several months ago I wrote that the bipar- tisan Iraq StudyGroup 2004 report had estimated the total cost of the Iraqwar as around $2 trillion. Economist Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University now reckons that figure, including Afghanistan, may even reach $3 trillion. Add the adverse fall- out from the current economic slowdown and the stage is set for fiscal trimming. Virtually no provision has been made to cover the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in real time, and no one is able to predict when the economic downturnwill bottomout. The logical result will be a period of belt-tightening throughout the civilian agencies of the federal government shortly after a new administration takes office in January. My point is, if ever we needed an organization like AFSA to look after our interests onCapitol Hill—“towatch our col- lective backs,” as a Governing Board colleague recently said— it is now. As I see it, the advocacy aspect of AFSA’s role in the lives of its members has become far and away its most valu- able attribute. As AFSARetireeCoordinator Bonnie Brown recently report- ed in her bimonthly newsletter, notable changes to the feder- al health care system — in which most of us are enrolled — are being suggested that bear close watching. The main drift of these modifications as the system braces for the first wave of baby-boomers to retire is to limit services provided and to increase participants’ cost of enrollment. Ms. Brown, draw- ing upon the resources of our entire AFSA team, stays on top of these issues for you andme. And that is only one of thewatch- dog services the AFSA staff renders for us all. As the voice of the Foreign Service, AFSA is devoted to pro- tecting and improving employment benefits — in what has become an increasingly dangerous career—both for its active- duty members and for those of us who have gone on to sec- ond careers or simply to a well-earned retirement. Alone we can do little to protect our interests, but togeth- er we can do a lot. As professional associations around Washington go, AFSA is not particularly large. In fact, we are quite small (with just over 13,000members) in comparison to such behemoths as theNational Association of Retired Federal Employees with 340,000 members, the Military Officers Association of America with 370,000members and, of course, AARP, whichneeds nodescription. It is a compliment toAFSA’s good reputation around town that both NARFE and MOAA are in regular contact with our staff, exchanging views on strat- egy for dealing with our common employer (and paymaster). To lift a line from Forrest Gump, small is as small does. Sowe accept our size and get on with the business of making our voice heard in places that count. In this, we regularly punch above our weight. But we need to do more. The Governing Board has formed a task force on retiree membership comprised of retiree representatives Hank Cohen, Janice Bay, David Passage and me. Member Services Director Janet Hedrick, Labor Management Specialist James Yorke and Bonnie Brown sit in as advisers. Our goal is to per- suade at least 500 retirees from the more than 7,000 Foreign Service annuitantswho are not AFSAmembers to join (or rejoin) AFSA this year. We are considering a wide range of strategies to reach this ambitious, but hopefully achievable, goal. Regrettably, the State Department is barred by law from sharing with us its master address list for annuitants. So we are faced with the challenge of how to communicate with these non-member annuitants who, incidentally, benefit equallywith the rest of us fromAFSA’s advocacy. The thought occurs that you, loyal members, might have an idea or two on how we might crack this nut. If we could bring in 500 new members we could, in addition to increas- ing our clout whenwe speak out on issues, improve retiree ser- vices by hiring an assistant for Ms. Brown as we enter what is likely to be a period of retrenchment across the federal gov- ernment. If you have ideas or would like to recommend an annui- tant friend formembership, we’d be delighted to followup. My AFSAe-mail address is: farrand@afsa.org . Or contactMs. Brown at brown@afsa.org. o V.P. VOICE: RETIREE n BY ROBERT W. “BILL” FARRAND Retiree Membership Task Force Launched Virtually no provision has been made to cover the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in real time, and no one is able to predict when the economic downturn will bottom out. The logical result will be a period of belt-tightening throughout the civilian agencies of the federal government.