| AFSA President Update -- May 22, 2008 |
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1. Greetings from AFSA President John Naland. Here is what we are working on at AFSA headquarters. Please send any comments to me at naland@afsa.org. TOP LEGISLATIVE ISSUES 2. As detailed in my April 30 update < http://www.afsa.org/043008presupdate.cfm>, AFSA continues to work very hard to advance legislation to a) fix the overseas pay gap and b) obtain immediate funding to back-fill Foreign Service positions transferred to Iraq and long-term Arabic language training. AFSA has been very active on the Hill over the past few weeks on both of these issues, including meeting with House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA), House Committee on Foreign Affairs Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD). However, it likely will be several more weeks before we know the outcomes. I will update you as soon as we learn how successful our efforts have been. 3. In the meantime, for background on the pay gap issue, please see the following documents: my last update at < http://www.afsa.org/043008presupdate.cfm>, Pay Equity Q&A at < http://www.afsa.org/OCP2008Jan.pdf>, Crossing the Rubicon on the Overseas Pay Gap at < http://www.afsa.org/011108overseas.cfm>, and AFSA State VP Steve Kashkett's Overseas Pay Disparity: Debunking the Myths at < http://www.afsa.org/fsj/may08/statevoice.pdf>. For background on budget and staffing gaps, please see Key Points on U.S. Foreign Service Resource Needs at < http://www.afsa.org/keypoints0508.cfm>. RETIREE ISSUES 4. Since my last update message, I have visited with Foreign Service retiree groups in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC, in Los Angeles, CA, and in San Francisco, CA. During the Los Angeles stop, I met with the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times newspaper to discuss the need for more resources for diplomacy and development assistance. I was scheduled to meet with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger commandeered my time slot at the last minute. 5. Having now visited with seven Foreign Service retiree groups in five states across the nation, I wish to applaud the role these groups play as an active extension of the Foreign Service as they work in their local areas to explain the value of diplomacy and development assistance to fellow citizens, the news media, and Members of Congress. They also provide their members with marvelous opportunities to keep in touch with others who learned first-hand the unique demands of a Foreign Service career. Retirees who do not participate in one of the 18 Foreign Service retiree associations around the nation can find contact information on the nearest group in AFSA's 2008 Directory of Retired Members or at < http://www.afsa.org/retiree/retassoc.cfm>. 6. For information on recent AFSA advocacy of issues of concern to retired members, please see < http://www.afsa.org/retiree/012608update.cfm> and < http://www.afsa.org/retiree/040308update.cfm>. FALLEN DIPLOMATS FUND 7. The Federal Employee Education Assistance Fund (FEEA) and the State Department have launched a Fallen Diplomats Scholarship Fund campaign to provide scholarship money to eight students who lost parents in overseas terrorist acts between 1998 and 2002. The Fallen Diplomats Fund was started in 1998 by FEEA charity, whose mission is to help federal employees in need through emergency assistance and scholarships, through a variety of sources, including other federal employees. FEEA successfully provided four-year scholarship funding for every child who lost a parent to the Oklahoma City bombings and the 9/11 Pentagon attacks. As the children of fallen diplomats are leaving for college, the Fallen Diplomats Fund currently languishes under-funded. 8. FEEA will provide a dollar-for-dollar match of all funds raised by this campaign, up to $375,000, towards the $750,000 needed to guarantee full scholarships to the eight eligible students. All donated funds will go directly towards paying higher education costs for these eight children. Please make donations online at < http://www.feea.org/special_funds/diplomatic.html> or by check made out to Fallen Diplomats Fund, FEEA Headquarters, 8441 West Bowles Avenue, Suite 200, Littleton, CO 80123. Donations are tax deductible. MORE HELP FROM SECRETARY GATES 9. I was privileged to attend a May 14 meeting of the American Academy of Diplomacy at which Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave another in a series of his calls for expanded funding for diplomacy and development assistance. While not as detailed as his initial November 2007 speech < http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1199>, his remarks did re-emphasize key points. Below are two excerpts. The full remarks can be found at < http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4230>. -- "I decided to take advantage of the Landon Lecture at K State last November because I figured if anything would get the attention of the Congress in terms of a speech on behalf of the State Department, it would be for that speech to be given by the secretary of Defense. And I must say that I'm fairly heartened. I actually think, for the first time in decades, there is a real groundswell, bipartisan groundswell, on the Hill to devote more resources to the State Department and to the civilian side of our national security. I know that Secretary Rice has asked for 1,000 additional positions for the Foreign Service in the '09 budget as well as significant dollar increases. And we've been very supportive...." -- "I think that a big problem the State Department has had both with respect to training and to planning is that the service is too small to have a sizeable enough float of people that are available to be pulled away from regular assignments and devote a year or six months or two years to training or to be focused solely on the planning activity. I mean, we have thousands of people involved in planning in the Department of Defense. And tens of thousands of people in training at any given time in advanced training, not just basic training. And so I think that central to the [State] department being able to do the kind of advanced leadership and management training and other kinds of training is an increase in the numbers that allow you to have the float that you can perform your mission at the same time people can be assigned to go get additional education. Just to give you some sense of the comparable sizes, the total Foreign Service today is about 6,600 [FSOs]. That would not quite crew one carrier strike group. So that's one reason why I think it needs to be significantly larger." FSJ READER SURVEY 10. More than 700 Foreign Service Journal readers have already responded to the Journal's online survey. If you have not done so yet, please do so today. The survey contains 44 questions and should only require about 10 minutes to complete. To take the survey, please go to the following link: < http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB227RRSTWU9R> 11. Since the Journal began publication in 1919 as The Consular Bulletin, it has undergone numerous changes in design and content. The 2008 Reader Survey is your chance to give us your views on AFSA's flagship publication and how it is meeting your needs today. All responses are anonymous and will only be used to improve the coverage and format of the magazine. Results will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal. Thank you in advance for your participation! FOREIGN SERVICE WOMEN'S FORUM ONLINE 12. The Foreign Service Women's Forum was created in late 2007 by FSO Della Cavey. AFSA hosts this password-protected e-mail forum on our web site for members to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities faced by female Foreign Service personnel. The forum is open to all female generalists and specialists as a place to share stories, answer questions, vent or just chat. AFSA members are invited to log on (ID= member number, PW = last name) and join the conversation at < www.afsa.org/secure/corridors/index.cfm>. Feel free to e-mail Della Cavey with any questions at < caveyd@state.gov>. If you're already an AFSA member, but haven't signed up for online member services yet, please contact the Member Services Department at < member@afsa.org>. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 13. AFSA draws your attention to the Internet-based professional journal "American Diplomacy" that was created by a group of retired Foreign Service members in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle of North Carolina. Online at < www.americandiplomacy.org >, the journal publishes commentary, analysis, research, speeches, book reviews, feature stories, and memoirs on issues relating to American foreign policy and its practice. This electronic journal is a great tool for active duty Foreign Service members to use as an ongoing, career-long professional development resource. 14. Two other websites of professional interest to active and retired Foreign Service members are sponsored by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training < www.adst.org > which is headquartered at the Foreign Service Institute. One is ADST's instructional website on the history, practices, and traditions of U.S. diplomacy at < www.usdiplomacy.org >. The other is ADST's extensive foreign affairs oral history collection, over 1300 transcripts of which have been posted online by the Library of Congress at < http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/diplomacy/>. Both are excellent resources for the self-directed professional development that we all need to be doing. 15. In the news-you-can-use category is the book "Realities of Foreign Service Life, Volume 2" published last year by the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide (AAFSW). The book, like the original 2002 volume, includes essays from Foreign Service officers, specialists, and family members. Focusing on the realities faced by diplomats and their families outside the embassy or consulate walls, the writers explore topics such as schooling and housing abroad, intercultural marriage, medical evacuations, employment for accompanying partners, and the rising number of unaccompanied assignments. The book sells for $20.95 plus shipping and is available from major online booksellers. AFSA/TLG SUMMER INTERN 16. AFSA is pleased to announce that David Law, a junior attending Morehouse College, has been selected as the 2008 AFSA/Thursday Luncheon Group (TLG) summer Intern. He will begin his assignment in June on the India desk in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. He will receive mentoring and financial support from AFSA and TLG. The TLG is an organization within the State Department comprised of African American employees to further their participation in the formulation, the articulation, and the implementation of U.S. foreign policy. This AFSA/TLG collaboration first began in 1995 to allow a minority undergraduate or graduate student to explore an international relations career in a high profile, substantive and supportive work environment during the summer months. MAJOR DONATION TO AFSA SCHOLARSHIP FUND 17. The Martha "Mattie" Newman Trust has notified us that the AFSA Scholarship Fund is to receive a $250,000 bequest along with $45,000 from two life insurance policies for which Mr. George Newman named AFSA as the beneficiary. Mr. Newman, who died in April 2008, had already established the "AFSA George and Mattie Newman Scholarship" in 1993, when his wife passed away. These monies will be used to fund need-based undergraduate financial aid scholarships for Foreign Service children. The Newman's did not have any children of their own, but were keenly interested in helping Foreign Service youth. Mr. Newman joined the Foreign Service in 1951, and the Newman's served in Manila, London, Seoul, Saigon, Bangkok. Mr. Newman retired from the Foreign Service in the early 1970's. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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