The Foreign Service Journal, October 2007

T he last time I wrote to you from this corner, our nation had just gone to war with Iraq. It was March 2003. By the time my piece appeared in the May Journal , we were fully engaged in a massive military campaign in Iraq. We assumed that the Pentagon would be urgently taking precautions toprotect the lives of our fightingmen andwomen. I argued that parallel measures to preserve the safety and secu- rity of our diplomats stationed in theMiddle East and elsewhere in theMuslimworld—dangerous regions in the best of times — should also be taken. What I fretted about in that column has, of course, come to pass. The Foreign Service is squarely in the thick of it, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. Major front-burner issues are how to staff Embassy Baghdad, the largest embassy in the world, with some 300 FS positions, and how to find FSOs of suitable rank and experience toheadup the score of Provincial Reconstruction Teams tasked to bring economic initiatives and good govern- ment practices to the Iraqi hinterland. What, youmay ask, do these issues have to do with AFSA’s retiree agenda? Agood bit, I’d say, because the Foreign Service’s claim to its rightful place in the foreign policy arena depends on how well it fulfills its mission— and this, in turn, depends on receiving the funding and resources needed todo so. Active- duty Servicemembers need our support, as they, unlike retirees, have only limitedmeans of pressing their concerns directlywith- in the system. Returning to the AFSA Governing Board after a hiatus of four years, I find several retiree issues are still on the agenda from that earlier time, including the need for a department com- mitment to seekwider authority tohireWhenActuallyEmployed retirees not subject to a salary cap and the creation of a stan- dardized and centralizedWAEprogramdesigned to address the department’s critical staffing shortfall. The new team is taking a fresh look at these questions. We mean to show steady progress on themall, despite the less-than- forgiving environment inwhichwe operate. Chief among them is a resource-constrainedDepartment of State whose priorities are heavily, if not totally, skewed toward the Iraq War. Given the looming cost of that conflict and the larger campaign against Islamic fundamentalists — which the Iraq Study Group estimated could cost as much as $2 trillion (yes, trillion) — it is crucially important that AFSA keep retireebread-and-butter issues at the fore. When thenation’s fiscal health is under extreme pressure, ways to cut back pub- lic employee benefits are sure to come under intense review. We need to lay the foundation now for the battle, if and when it comes, to preserve our hard-won benefits. In this connection, let me reiterate a pitch I made back in the February 2002 FSJ regarding retiree membership statistics. Out of a retired annuitant base totaling 15,720people, only 3,778 are members of AFSA— an anemic 24-percent retiree mem- bership rate. Compare this to theMilitaryOfficers’ Association of America, with a retiree membership rate of nearly 60 per- cent of its pool of potential members. With 372,000members, MOAA is admittedly an elephant compared to ourmouse; but such a robustmembershipbase earns it enviable clout onCapitol Hill. WithinAFSA, the comparable rate for State active-dutymem- bers is 75 percent. The AFSA Governing Board and I warm- ly commend Member Services Director Janet Hedrick for her tireless efforts to increase AFSA membership among almost 12,000 FS annuitants who remain outside AFSA, the lone voice of the Foreign Service on Capitol Hill. An increase of just 200 retiredmembers would enableAFSA to expand the hours of its retiree services unit, where Bonnie Brown labors three days a week handling every conceivable inquiry relating to annuity computation, health insurance, death benefits and amyriad of topics too arcane to list. We need seri- ously to consider expandingMs. Brown’s unit and adding a part- time understudy to her one-person staff. Finally,my four retiree colleagues—Herman (Hank)Cohen, HarryGeisel, Howard Jeter andDavidPassage—will share this column space on a more or less rotating basis so that we can tap into a wider range of opinion and expertise. We are eager to hear your concerns and comments as our termunfolds. You may contact us through Bonnie Brown at tel: (800) 704-2372, ext. 509; or e-mail: brown@afsa.org . V.P. VOICE: RETIREE BY ROBERT W. “BILL” FARRAND Taking a Fresh Look The last time I wrote you from this corner, our nation had just gone to war with Iraq. 64 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / OC T OB E R 2 0 0 7 A F S A N E W S