The Foreign Service Journal, December 2010

AFSA Offers New Membership Benefit through Zipcar Partnership This fall, AFSA initiated a new partnership with Zipcar, the world’s largest car-sharing and car club service. AFSA members will now be able to take advantage of signifi- cantly discounted annual and rental fees. Under the new partnership, Zipcar’s annu- al fee is reduced from $50 to $25 for AFSA members, and hourly fees start at $8.25 rather than around $10; hybrids are avail- able starting at $7 per hour. Weekend rates are slightly higher than weekday rates. AFSA members are also able to access addi- tional discounted fees and special rates. To make use of this benefit, please visit www.zipcar.com/afsa. You will need a valid driver’s license from any country, and you will be required to include your AFSA mem- bership number. If you are already a Zipcar member, give them a call at 1 (866) 4ZIP- CAR (404-7227) and select Option 2 for account assistance, followed by Option 1 for billing. Let the agent know you’d like to be added to the American Foreign Service Association Zipcar for Business plan. Volunteer to be an AFSA Post Rep! AFSA relies on members to be its eyes and ears overseas, and we hope you will consider volunteering to be the AFSA post representative at your embassy or con- sulate. Post reps are active-duty Foreign Service employees who donate their time to assist fellow employees with manage- ment-related problems and professional concerns. They serve as a liaison with AFSA and pass on the views of its mem- bers from all the foreign affairs agencies. We want to have a representative at every post, but there are a few vacancies. Please check out the list at www.afsa.org/ postreps/replist.cfm and if your post cur- rently has a vacancy, please consider stepping forward. All information on becoming a post rep can be found at www.afsa.org/postreps. We encourage active-duty AFSAmembers from all agencies to consider volunteering. M uch has been said by our leadership lately about howwe are to create— or, more accurately, recreate — USAID as the premier development agency. There is certainly a need to aim for that lofty status, especially given that the latest fed- eral survey on employee satisfaction ranks the agency at number 28 among the 34 smaller federal agencies. In addition, the first annu- al Quality of Official Development Assistance assessment made by the Center for Global Development and the Brookings Institution reports that the U.S. ranks almost dead last in quality of foreign assis- tance among 31 donor countries and multilateral agencies, as well as among 152 individual development agencies. Yes, we have a way to go to be that premier development agency our leader- shipwants. But even the recently announced initiative known as “USAIDForward,” which focuses on seven major reform areas, does not get to the core of our prob- lem. The most important ingredient — talent management — is conspicuously weak. A number of steps are missing from the plan. These include upgrading mea- ger entry-level salaries to reasonable levels, equalizing personnel benefits with those of the State Department andmaking a commitment to keep FSOs (who function in the “up or out” system) motivated by limiting Foreign Service mid-level hir- ing. USAIDcould also create additional Civil and Foreign Service positions to replace personal services contractors, and stop the practice of assigning non-Foreign Service employees to crucial overseas positions such as mission director in the Philippines andNamibia or senior development counselor inRome. All of these Foreign Service positions are now filled by Civil Service employees. A great example of a leader who looked after and developed his people was former Secretary of State Colin Powell, whommany Foreign Service officers still remember with nostalgia. Sec. Powell made it clear that he valued his employ- ees and advocated successfully for additional positions and training under the Diplomatic Readiness Initiative. As for his relationship to USAID, he allowed us the freedom to run our own policy and budgeting operations. That was before his replacement, Condoleezza Rice, created the Directorate of Foreign Assistance at State, which dismantled USAID’s policy and budgeting function. That was the start of USAID’s downward slide. We are just now beginning to slowly recuperate as some policy and budgeting functions return to us. To com- plete the process and really become that premier development agency, however, we need our leaders to make existing employees feel valued in this process. They can do so by genuinely responding to longstanding and legitimate needs. ❏ A great example of a leader who looked after and developed his people was former Secretary of State Colin Powell. V.P. VOICE: USAID ■ BY FRANCISCO ZAMORA Developing Your People 54 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / DE C EMB E R 2 0 1 0 A F S A N E W S AFSA NEWS BRIEFS