AMERICA DECIDES

2. AFSA congratulates President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden on their electoral victory. We have submitted a request to Chairman Biden's staff seeking to meet with him this winter (in recent decades, it often has been in the White House, not on Capitol Hill, where foreign affairs agencies' budget requests have faced their biggest hurdles). Already this past summer, AFSA met with one of Senator Obama's senior foreign policy advisors, Dr. Susan Rice, to discuss the resource and management needs of diplomacy and development assistance.

3. AFSA, of course, looks forward to learning the name of the Secretary of State-designate and will seek an early appointment with him or her just as we met with Secretary-designate Colin Powell soon after the 2000 election. As AFSA and our civil service colleagues also did for Secretary Powell, we will offer to organize an employee welcoming ceremony in front of the AFSA Memorial Plaque in the C Street lobby of the Truman Building to formally welcome the new Secretary once he or she is sworn in. We also look forward to meeting with the USAID Administrator-designate and other incoming officials with responsibilities for foreign affairs.

ACTIVE DUTY STATE SURVEY

4. This is important: AFSA needs your input to guide our conversations with the incoming Obama Administration. During the campaign, Senator Obama made frequent reference to the need to renew American diplomacy to meet the challenges of the 21st century. He talked about expanding the Foreign Service and our overseas presence. AFSA and allied groups will do all that we can to assist the Obama Administration in securing those resources from Congress, but to help us do that we need validation from active duty Foreign Service members.

5. Therefore, AFSA State Vice President Steve Kashkett and I ask our State colleagues to take a few minutes right now to take a web-based survey containing just 23 mostly multiple-choice questions. This anonymous survey, like previous versions in 2005, 2006 and 2007, seeks input on a range of issues. In AFSA's coming discussions with the Secretary of State-designate, with others in the Administration, and with key lawmakers, our presentations will be strengthened if we are able to bring to the table fresh, direct input from thousands of Foreign Service members worldwide. So, please take this quick survey RIGHT NOW and then forward the survey link to your active-duty State colleagues. Results will be published in one month.

< http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228G52XKJXW >

6. For active duty members at USAID, FCS, FAS, and IBB, your AFSA Governing Board representatives will reach out to you before year's end to solicit input for advocacy topics with your agency's incoming new leadership.

OVERSEAS PAY GAP

7. As detailed in my October 9 update < http://www.afsa.org/100908afsanet.cfm >, we continue to look for a viable legislative vehicle to put our overseas pay gap bill before the post-election session of Congress. We understand that Secretary Rice's top management team also continues to look for an opening to advance pay gap legislation before year's end. Unfortunately, the "hold" by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is still blocking the Senate from acting on our bill on an expedited basis. We are looking for other options, but have no firm commitments yet.

8. In a meeting last week with a senior staffer of Senator John Kerry (D-MA), we noted that delaying action to next year would force this issue to the top of the next Secretary of State's legislative agenda at a time when a large number of other issues will be calling for attention. Senator Kerry and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) have been champions of closing the pay gap in this session of Congress. We also appreciate the many members in the House and Senate who have supported us in this effort over the past two years. For an updated briefing paper on the case for closing the overseas pay gap, see < http://www.afsa.org/OCP111.doc >.

RESOURCES FOR DIPLOMACY

9. As detailed in the AFSA News section of the November issue of the Foreign Service Journal, the American Academy of Diplomacy's landmark study "A Foreign Affairs Budget for the Future" < http://www.academyofdiplomacy.org/programs/fab_project.html > provides the next President and Congress with a detailed blueprint for fixing the human capital crisis that is hobbling U.S. diplomacy. That report is striking a responsive chord with observers across the political spectrum. Below is an excerpt from a November 1, 2008 Washington Times newspaper column < http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/01/mistakes-we-cant-afford/ > by Georgie Ann Geyer:

"We have a vastly overburdened military. And as Defense Secretary Robert Gates himself has warned, our military has greater influence in foreign policymaking than the diplomatic corps. A new report by the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Stimson Center finds that the next U.S. president will need nearly 50 percent more diplomats to carry out a successful foreign policy, but the Foreign Service is hemorrhaging talent to the private sector, leaving a shortage of diplomats for this critical period. So the new president, whoever he is, must not only act but reconstruct his instruments of power from the bottom up. There will be little time, particularly in the beginning, for rehearsing great acts."

FOREIGN SERVICE YOUTH FOUNDATION

10. Please support American Foreign Service families by donating to the Foreign Service Youth Foundation (FSYF) in the ongoing Combined Federal Campaign. The Foreign Service Youth Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to assisting American Foreign Service families with an international mobile lifestyle. To learn more about FSYF, visit < www.fsyf.org >. FSYF's CFC participant number is 39436.

FSI TRANSITION CENTER

11. The Transition Center at FSI is looking for a presenter for the workshop “Singles in Foreign Service.” The course is presented twice a year on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 8.30 pm at FSI. The ideal candidate is a single Foreign Service member who has experience with FS assignments in big and small posts in different parts of the world. The aim of the workshop is to highlight and discuss the issues that singles face in the Foreign Service lifestyle. These issues include combating loneliness, creating a social life, dating, handling the logistics of packing and unpacking, dealing with domestic help, and settling into a new life every few years. A workshop design and class materials are available for the presenter. If interested and for further details, please contact FSI's Archana Dheer at < dheera@state.gov>.

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