The Foreign Service Journal, November 2004

American Foreign Service Association • November 2004 Inside This Issue: STAFFING IRAQ...................................2 STATE: NO SEX! EVER! ...................3 FUTURE OF COMMERCIAL DIPLOMACY.........................................4 CAMPAIGNS & THE FS.......................5 INSIDE THE FS COMMUNITY .............6 CLASSWIDE REVIEW..........................8 LETTERS TO CANDIDATES .................9 MEMO OF THE MONTH.....................9 AFSA NEWS AFSA AWARDS FOR DISSENT AND PERFORMANCE Help AFSA Honor Risk-Takers BY BARBARA BERGER, PROFESSIONAL ISSUES COORDINATOR “ D issent carriesmore risk than reward formost fed- eral employees, who in many cases face negative evaluations, banishment tounpleasant assignments, even court, for publicizingmistakes at their agencies. There is one exception: at the State Department, dissenters can win awards. Every year, the American Foreign Service Associationhonors ForeignService officerswhohave ‘exhibited extraordinary accomplish- ment involving initiative, integrity, intellectual courage and constructive dissent’ with$2,500 awards.” So goes the first paragraph of a May 24, 2004, article by Frank Jossi in the Federal Times about dissent ingovernment. AFSA gives constructive dissent awards in four categories: The Christian A. Herter Award for a senior officer, the William R. Rivkin Award for a mid-career officer, the W. Averell Harriman Award for a junior officer and theTexHarrisAward for a spe- cialist. Keith Mines received the 2004 Rivkin Award for his dissenting opinion on Iraq policy. The title of his dissent message to the department, sent inMay 2003, got right to the point: “Let the U.N. Manage the Political Transition in Iraq.” Accepting the award, Mines remarked that Iraq’s future was “too important to allow ideology to trump experience or imagination to trump D o you have a candidate inmind for an AFSA Governing Board posi- tion, but have not yet sent in your nomination? Have you been consider- ing a run for an AFSA office, but not yet thrown your hat in the ring? If so, hurry to the nearest computer or fax machine and let us know now. The deadline for nominations is Nov. 16. TheAFSAelectionprocesswill certain- lynot be as cut-throat as our national cam- paign has been, but we would like to see competition in the races. The more par- ticipation we have, the more powerful we can be as a professional association and as your union. So we ask you to get involved, consider making a nomination or running yourself. We also ask you not to forget to votewhen the ballot comes by mail in January. AFSAstaff count eachbal- lot by hand, and every vote counts. The newAFSAGoverning Board will take office on July 15, 2005, andwill serve for two years. Officer positions to con- sider include President, Vice President for State, Vice President for USAID, Vice President for FCS, Vice President for FAS, Vice President for Retirees, Secretary and Treasurer. Constituency representative positions include eight State representa- tives, four retiree representatives and one representative each for USAID, FCS, FAS and IBB. The number of rep positions is based on membership totals for each constituency. For details on submitting a nomination, see the October issue of AFSA News , which can be found online at www.afsa.org/news. ▫ AFSA Weighs In AFSA gives input to presidential candidates before election, with the goal of making sure the Foreign Service is on the agenda. See page 9. JOSH Continued on page 3 2005-2007 AFSA GOVERNING BOARD Last Call for Nominations JOSH