The Foreign Service Journal, September 2015

Let me begin by thanking all retired members who voted in the election, and espe- cially those who supported me. I would also like to thank my opponents for their positive and issue-oriented campaigns. Larry Cohen and Charlie Ray have contributed much to AFSA in the past and will continue to do so. I see my responsibili- ties as supporting you for the next two years in three dimensions: retail, wholesale and existential. By retail, I mean the individual bureau- cratic difficulties that inevi- tably occur in retirement administration. Let me give you an instructive personal example. My wife and I have a child disabled since birth by cere- bral palsy. In 2004, I filed for Getting Started THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2015 55 I see my responsibilities as supporting you for the next two years in three dimensions: retail, wholesale and existential. Views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the AFSA Retiree VP. Contact: tdboyatt@gmail.com | (703) 759-6658 RETIREE VP VOICE | BY TOM BOYATT AFSA NEWS a certificate of incapacity from the Office of Medical Services so that Catherine could remain under our gov- ernment health insurance policy for her lifetime, as the law provides. Initially, Catherine was granted such a certificate, the coverage of which was limited to two years. I immediately appealed on the basis that cerebral palsy is a permanent condition and the certificate of incapacity should, likewise, be perma- nent. It was granted. This past summer, the director of the Retirement Office, John Naland, who has been extraordinarily helpful and supportive of all of us in that position, called to say that Catherine’s certificate of incapacity had expired in 2006, and that I needed to obtain a permanent certificate. I had an instant vision of my future widow being presented with a huge bill for insurance improperly paid by the government and Catherine being tossed out of our Foreign Service Ben- efit Plan. I rushed to my files, quickly found the hard copy of the permanent certificate of incapacity and forwarded a copy to John, who ensured that it was placed in my elec- tronic retirement record. The lessons of this vignette are: • Keep hard paper copies of all important documents—life insurance designations, certificates of incapacity and the like. • The transition in the last 10 years from paper to electronic records has inevi- tably led to some mistakes. When you retire, make sure that the electronic record is accurate. • The retirement pro- cess itself is a fragile time. Pay particular attention to all details—especially the financial and legacy matters that have an impact on you and your family in retirement and beyond. If, in spite of your and the system’s best efforts, post-retirement problems emerge, AFSA has two staff retirement counselors, four retiree representatives and myself. We are all ready to assist in any way we can. I am confident that we will be successful in most of the matters with which we deal. However, not all problems are soluble. If we hit a brick wall, we will inform you of the efforts we have made and the reasons we cannot “win the case.”We may not win them all, but we will certainly fight them all. In subsequent columns, I will be discussing with you the wholesale (defense of statutory benefits) and existential (defense of the Foreign Service) dimensions of our portfolio. Challenges in these areas are the sever- est I have seen in 50 years of AFSA involvement. There is much to do; let’s get started. We are in this together. n Marixell Garcia (left) and Clint Brewer, members of the largest-ever incoming class of Foreign Commercial Service officers, sign up for AFSA membership during a welcome luncheon at AFSA headquarters on June 8. Growing FCS Ranks AFSA/MARIAC.LIVINGSTON