The Foreign Service Journal, September 2018

64 SEPTEMBER 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL STAY INFORMED. STAY CONNECTED. The Results Are In: AFSA’s Retiree Survey Retirees are a critical AFSA constituency. The AFSA retiree engagement survey, conducted in May, allowed us to gather actionable data to improve the breadth of ser- vices we offer our retired and soon-to-be-retired members. Thirty-seven percent of you completed the 10-ques- tion survey, providing insight on programming and informa- tion AFSA can offer to retiree members and those nearing retirement to both assist and empower decision-making. The first few questions of the survey were aimed at understanding when and why AFSA retiree members reach out to AFSA for help in navi- gating their retirement ben- efits. The first question asked: Have you ever contacted AFSA concerning your retirement benefits? The results (see Figure 1) showed that 22.6 percent of all respondents had contacted AFSA concern- ing their retirement benefits. Respondents who indi- cated that they had not contacted AFSA about retire- ment benefits were asked: If you have not contacted AFSA concerning your retirement benefits, please tell us why not (see Figure 2). The majority answered that either they have never had an issue with retirement benefits (71.9 per- cent of respondents) or had found the answer themselves (18.6 percent). Retiree members who indicated in the first ques- tion that they had contacted AFSA concerning their retire- ment benefits were asked: When you have contacted AFSA about your retirement benefits, please tell us what your issues concerned. The top three retirement benefit issues for which members reached out to AFSA were Federal Employee Health Ben- efits (26.9 percent), Medicare Part B (22.2 percent) and survivor benefits (20.4 per- cent). “Other” was also a top selection (23.3 percent) and many of the typed responses included questions on annuity calculation. The fourth question asked: Which of the following AFSA benefits do you find useful to you as a retiree? (see Fig- ure 3). The Foreign Service Journal was selected by 83.5 percent and email commu- nications fromAFSA by 82.5 percent of all respondents as the most useful AFSA bene- fits. The annual Retiree Direc- tory was selected by 72.8 percent of respondents as a top member benefit. AFSA’s advocacy on Capitol Hill was selected by 47 percent of respondents. The results from this question paint a clear pic- ture—retired Foreign Service members maintain a keen interest in their profession and look to AFSA as a vital resource for staying informed and up to date. The 15.1 percent of respondents who selected “retirement benefits counsel- ing” were asked a follow-up question: How valuable is it for AFSA to provide one-on- one counseling on retirement benefits? Almost 70 percent answered “extremely valu- able,” while almost 30 per- cent answered “somewhat valuable.” Three questions sought to understand how retiree members use existing AFSA benefits. When asked “ Have you attended an AFSA-spon- sored event either online or in person in the in the last year?” 25.7 percent of respondents said yes. The main reason for not participating was, unsurprisingly, location, with 72.2 percent of respondents selecting “I live out of the area” in response to the ques- tion, “If you have not attended an AFSA-sponsored event either online or in person please tell us why.” Other responses included: “nothing has grabbed my interest” (28 percent); “unaware of events” (6.8 per- cent); and “mobility issues” (4.3 percent). Finally, AFSAwanted to understand “which AFSA resources are most helpful for learning about retirement- related information.” While the bimonthly AFSA Retiree Newsletter was selected as the most helpful by 71.6 percent of respon- dents, coverage of retiree issues in The Foreign Service Journal was selected by 66.8 percent of respondents and email communications from AFSA on benefit updates was selected by 60.7 percent. The AFSAwebsite and the Retiree Directory were selected by approximately 35 percent of respondents. Finally, in an effort to better understand the interests of our members, we included two open-ended questions. The first asked: “What, if any, additional retiree member benefits would you like AFSA to offer as your professional association?” Figure 1