The Foreign Service Journal, October 2005

V.P. VOICE: RETIREES n BY DAVID REUTHER Join Us W ith this inaugural message, I would like to intro- duce the new retiree contingent of the 2005-2007 AFSA Governing Board. We have a particularly robust group of retiree representatives in Gil Sheinbaum, Larry Lesser, Roger Dankert and Len Baldyga. We intend to be accessible, and we encourage you to contact any of us. A top-rankedmission for this board’s retiree contingent is to encourage an increase in retiree membership in AFSA and to apply that increased voice to professional and practical retiree issues, particularly through getting our voice heard in Congress. Six in 10 Foreign Service retirees have annuities of less than $50,000 a year, so it is entire- ly appropriate that bread-and-butter issues be on the table. I have served as a retiree representative on two AFSA Governing Boards and have great appreciation for the role of Congress in con- trolling the framework of our retirement — whether youare talking cost-of-living increase, pre-taxpayment of healthpremiums (the “pre- mium conversion” issue) or removing the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government PensionOffset onSocial Security benefits. These issues involve thousands of dol- lars of actual or tax benefits per year to retiree members andwe plan to explainand illustrate them in great detail in coming Foreign Service Journal and Retiree Newsletter issues . As a start, I urge you in the strongest terms to heed AFSA’s Aug. 10 AFSANET call to let Congress know that retireeswant the same premiumconversion that active-duty government employees get. (This alone would be worth $1,000/year if you are paying $3,000 inpremiums andyour combined state and local taxbracket is 33percent.) AFSA has joinedwith theNational Active andRetiredFederal EmployeesAssociation in seek- ing to repeal or reform the two Social Security offsets (theWEP and the GPO), and to extend premium conversions to retirees. From this group of retiree representatives, I guarantee youwill hear more calls that you intercede on your behalf withCongress. Youwill also hearmore fromus, because one of the enormous changes inAFSAover the years has been the building of an excel- lent professional staff. BonnieBrown is our guruon retiree benefits and counselsmem- bers on their rights and privileges. Norma Reyes is focusing on our recruitment effort. JaniceBay is running theForeignServiceElderhostel program. CommunicationsDirector Tom Switzer directs a program that often calls on retirees to serve as speakers and to help tell the Foreign Service story to the American public. Key tomonitoring congres- sional activity on retiree benefits is Bonnie Brown, who coordinates responses and ini- tiatives with Legislative Affairs Director Ken Nakamura. As you read through the FSJ each month, I hope you are reminded that AFSA is a strong advocate not only for the issues dealingwith the legislation that governs the con- duct of our diplomacy, but also for issues that personally affect Foreign Service retirees. AFSA is your voice, your lobbyist, your advocate. That is why we encourage each of you to help us expand retiree membership. r 4 AFSA NEWS • OCTOBER 2005 SEEKING NOMINATIONS Sinclaire Awards for Language Study A FSA is currently accepting nomi- nations for the Sinclaire Language Awards, which seek to honor out- standing achievement in the study of hard languages and their associated cultures. Candidates for the awards are nominat- ed by language-training supervisors or instructors at the FSI School of Language Studies. Candi- datesmay also be nominated by supervisors or post language officers. Thewin- ners are selected by a committee composed of a member of the AFSA Governing Board serving as chair, the associate dean of the FSI School of Language Studies and the AFSA Coordinator for Professional Issues. Nominations should include the fol- lowing documents: 1. Completed Sinclaire Award Nomination form(obtained fromFSI or AFSA), signed by the nominator and his/her immediate supervisor. 2. Evidence of enrollment, if nomina- tion is basedon formal training (in the case of FSI students, the End-of-Training Report, DS-651). 3. A nominating statement. Each winner receives a check for $1,000 from the Matilda W. Sinclaire Endowment and a certificate of recogni- tion signed by the president of AFSA and the chair of theAFSAAwardsCommittee. Over $150,000has been awarded since the establishment of the program in 1982 to members of the Foreign Service. For further information, please con- tact AFSA Coordinator for Professional Issues Barbara Berger at berger@afsa.org or (202) 338-4045, ext. 521, or the School of Language Studies at FSI at (703) 302- 7242. o Let Congress know that retirees want the same premium conversion that active-duty government employees get. JOSH