AFSA President's Update

1. Greetings from AFSA President John Naland. Here is your update on what we are working on at AFSA headquarters. As always, I welcome your comments or suggestions at naland@afsa.org.

DOG DAYS OF AUGUST

2. Washington, D.C. is half deserted as much of the federal government is on vacation and all Members of Congress have left town. If any of those lawmakers or their staffs are headed your way during their August recess, please look for an opportunity to educate them on the need to end the overseas pay disparity and fully fund the Administration’s budget request. On the first issue, AFSA has a two-page briefer for your reference at www.afsa.org/ocp.doc. But do not let hesitancy about knowledge of the details deter you from expressing the simple unfairness of the status quo which costs Foreign Service members one year’s pay for every six (soon to be just five) years served abroad.

EAST AFRICA BOMBINGS ANNIVERSARY

3. On the ninth anniversary of the August 7, 1998 terrorist bombings of our embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, the State Department held an emotionally moving ceremony at the Arlington Cemetery memorial to the victims of those bombings. The event was attended by survivors, by senior Department and USAID representatives (including the acting Director General of the Foreign Service and the Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs), by AF and DS bureau veterans, by representatives of the Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies, and by others. Representing AFSA members worldwide, I laid a bouquet of flowers beside the memorial stone.

MEETING WITH DIPLOMATIC SECURITY

4. AFSA State Vice President Steve Kashkett, senior AFSA staff members, and I met with DS PDAS Greg Starr and some of his senior staff on August 3. We discussed several issues concerning the security of Foreign Service members in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the security conditions in the Baghdad International Zone and the upcoming move to the new embassy compound. We also received an upbeat progress report on two long-standing issues of major concern to AFSA and many of our members: updating the out-of-date contact reporting requirements and discussing the security clearance suspension process. DS expects to have the final draft of a complete revision of the regulations concerning foreign contact reporting ready in the near future. AFSA looks forward to having an opportunity to review and comment on that final draft before it is incorporated into the FAM. AFSA’s relationship with DS encompasses a wide range of issues that are vital to our members, so we appreciate the open lines of communication that the current DS leadership is maintaining with us.

5. As I conclude my first month back as AFSA President, I am struck by the number of members who have contacted me asking why some issue of critical importance to them was not addressed in my first two update messages. All I can say is that the new AFSA Governing Board, backed by AFSA’s talented professional staff, does intend to move forward in the coming months on a wide range of issues. To get a sense of the myriad of activities that AFSA typically undertakes, I invite you to review AFSA’s last annual report (available online at www.afsa.org/fsj/mar07/annual_report.pdf). The five page long “Year in Review” section gives a particularly good sense of the range of AFSA’s advocacy of member interests. Of course, it is up to the new AFSA Governing Board to compile our own record of accomplishment. But, given time, I pledge that we will do so.