Here is your update from USAID Vice President Francisco Zamora. Please send any comments and questions to <fzamora@usaid.gov>.

Happy New Year! This first AFSAnet message of 2007 is wholly dedicated to the recent USAID member survey. The completed survey will be published in the March issue of the Foreign Service Journal and will include graphical presentation of the data. In the meantime, below is a summary for your information. Please send your comments to the USAID VP Blog (www.afsa.org/usaid, click on blog link) to share with others.

A total of 368 of the 914 USAID AFSA members responded to the December 2006 survey, making this a quite decent 40% response rate. Officers answered 29 questions regarding their opinions, concerns, and priorities for the agency. About 81% are stationed overseas with the other 19% working domestically. Respondents included an even distribution of ranks with FS-3 and below at 42%, FS-1 and FS-2s at 47%. SFS officers accounted for 10% of the respondents. 

When asked what AFSA’s top priorities should be, the highest priorities were no surprise. Members would like us to continue pursuing locality pay and better benefits (65%), closely followed by fighting for fairness in the assignment/promotions area (63%). In fact, 95% of the members want AFSA to pursue overseas locality pay "vigorously". This will become AFSA’s major initiative as the new congress settles in. 

The third highest priority (57%) is to ensure equal benefits for all foreign affairs agencies as there are some glaring inequalities currently existing. Among them are higher compensation for things such as language training between assignments, difficult-to-staff differentials disparities between State and USAID, travel benefits, student loan reimbursement and USAA membership.

Another important topic is service in Critical Priority Countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Most members agree (40%) or strongly agree (28%) that those officers who serve in such places should get some "extra credit". Still, a significant 32% of you disagree with this. Our stance is that presence alone in a CPC should not be the sole determinant for promotion; it must be accompanied by outstanding performance. 

Although many FSOs mentioned disagreement with the current policy, separation from the family (64%) was the principal reason why officers would choose not to volunteer for an assignment in Iraq. 

In other areas, the biggest concerns indicated by the membership were the apparent lack of fairness of the assignment system (44%) and a desire for more family-friendliness with the Foreign Service (44%). This shows the increased importance that current officers give to a satisfying family life. 

There was also good news to report. Relationships between FSOs and FSNs were overwhelmingly good (32%) to excellent (64%). This confirms our appreciation of one of USAID’s most valuable resources, our overseas FSN colleagues.

On the other hand, Agency morale overall is suffering with nearly half (48%) of the officers indicating that it is low to poor. Only one person thought it was excellent and only 12% judged it to be good. This is something that our administrator must pay special attention to given all the stresses that employees are experiencing as the reorganization proceeds. 

Not everyone is happy about the significant changes we are experiencing. There were many respondents critical of the "stealth merger" apparently taking place between USAID and State. In effect, the most surprising response was that 67% of the respondents believe that overall conditions of work are worsening!

The Administrator’s job rating was mostly fair (48%) and poor (24%) with less than one-third (28%) judging him higher. This should be cause for concern since the Administrator has repeatedly affirmed in video and print messages that most people are "on board" with his changes to the agency. Only one-fifth of the staff (21%) believed that the Administrator was doing a good job in securing resources for the Agency and its people, although another 45% felt his efforts were fair and 33% thought they were poor.

USAID officers who reported that they would not be willing to volunteer for service in Iraq stated that the principal reason (64%) was because of separation from their family. Some are also concerned about security (53%) or disagree with policy (50%). Those who have served or would be willing to volunteer (28%) are most attracted by the extra pay and benefits (63%) and the adventure and challenge of it (54%) as well as the possibility for career enhancement (45%).

Other quotes of note from members include:

• "AFSA should be monitoring and ensuring that the integration of AID into State is done in a fair and equitable manner…."
• "…I see no end in sight to 60-hour work weeks and am beginning to believe that the Agency is not able to deliver on family friendliness."
• "The FSL program and how it allows non-FSOs to leap-frog over FSOs who are working their way up (is unfair)".
• "…we now have an administrator that works for State, not USAID."
• "…Equal benefits for members of household."
• "I am very worried about the impact of the Manage-to-Budget exercise on the assignment system."
• "AFSA should be in the lead in terms of fighting for women and families to get a humane maternity/paternity policy. The workforce has changed in its gender composition and the workplace has not kept up – shame on us."
1. "I am very concerned that the SMG assignment process is flawed. There are no established criteria, which leads to poor selection and a lack of transparency."
2. "The majority of AFSA members are State employees and their issues seem, over time, to get the most attention. We need more attention to USAID-specific issues."
In the end, we at AFSA are interested in being responsive to the needs and  priorities of the membership. About 77% are satisfied with AFSA’s efforts however we are still concerned that 23% are not.  Most officers (76%) want us to be more vocal and assertive and see AFSA as both a labor union and professional association. Many believe (58%) that AFSA as a whole should pay more attention to USAID-specific issues.  We are listening to your input and will increase our efforts to be more responsive. Thank you all for your honest input.  Remember to check the March 2007 AFSA Journal where you will find the graphical presentation of this survey.  We welcome additional comments by e-mail or via our web log (www.afsa.org/usaid, click on blog link).