Here is your update from USAID Vice President Francisco Zamora. Please send any comments and questions to <fzamora@usaid.gov>.
1. Update on Lafayette: As many of you have probably heard, the board of the Lafayette Federal Credit Union (LFCU) has made an abrupt decision to abort the proposed conversion to a for-profit bank. After all the votes had been counted, the board claimed victory by a margin of 18 votes, but allegations of voting problems and irregularities, combined with alleged mishandling by the responsible accounting firm, eventually caused the failure of the proposal. Those who were opposed to the conversion have not finished yet, however. They are now collecting signatures to have the entire LFCU board removed. That petition has been placed online and is accessible at this address: www.savethecu.com. As before, AFSA does not endorse either side; we are merely informing our membership of any ongoing issues that may be of concern.

2. Member Survey: The results are in! We hope you have seen last week’s AFSAnet message, which detailed the results of our recent member survey. If not, please read it here (http://www.afsa.org/USAID/011707afsanet.cfm) and then visit our blog to tell us what you think. To get to the blog, go to www.afsa.org/usaid and click on the “VP Blog” link at the top. Our survey has already made the news – click to read a Washington Post item on this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/21/AR2007012100881_2.html.

3. Assignment Update: The latest bidding cycle opened on January 22 and will run through February 12. All eligible bidders for the 2007 cycle who have not been assigned via one of the five General Notices of approved assignments are required to bid. Please see the agency notice dated January 22 for more details.

4. Your Money: As we do every year, AFSA has placed the 2007 FS pay scale on its web site. You may find it here: http://www.afsa.org/2007pay.cfm. In other money-related news, be on the look out for the February issue of the Foreign Service Journal, which will include our annual Tax Guide.

5. AFSA Elections: The deadline to nominate candidates for the open slots on the AFSA Governing Board is February 1. There are 25 positions to run for, including the Vice President for AFSA/USAID and the AFSA/USAID board representative. If you are interested in running, we urge you to participate. All the necessary information may be found right here: http://www.afsa.org/elections/.

6. AFSA Scholarships: The deadline to apply for the AFSA Scholarship Program is February 6, 2007. These consist of financial aid, academic merit, and art merit scholarships. Students must be claimed as dependent on the most recent IRS tax form by a U.S. government Foreign Service employee (active, retired with pension, deceased or separated) who has served or is serving at least a year abroad with a foreign affairs agency as defined by the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (Department of State, USAID, USIA, IBB, Commerce Service or Foreign Agriculture Service). Other, scholarship-specific requirements also apply. Please visit http://www.afsa.org/scholar/scholarship.cfm for further information.

7. We’re In: As always, we welcome visitors at the AFSA office, which is located in RRB 2.10-C. I am available via phone at 202-712-1631 and via e-mail at fzamora@usaid.gov. Senior Labor Management Advisor Doug Broome is at 202-712-0947 or dbroome@usaid.gov. The main AFSA/USAID number is 202-712-1941, while AFSA HQ is at 202-338-4540.