AFSANET from the USAID Vice President

August 23 , 2007

Please send any questions or comments to AFSA/USAID Vice President Francisco Zamora at fzamora@usaid.gov.

(1) The New Vanguard is Out : The fifth issue of our newsletter, The Vanguard, has been published. It includes items on Henrietta Fore’s nomination hearing, the recent USAID Memorial Ceremony, and a great piece by a recent USAID retiree on the Agency’s consolidation measures. Please click here to read the August Vanguard. (PDF 356 KB)

(2) Speaking Of Hearings : As we go into some detail about in The Vanguard, Henrietta Holsman Fore appeared before the Senate Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance on July 24 for her nomination hearing to become the new Administrator of USAID. The transcript of the entire hearing is now available online, and we urge you to give it a read. There are some truly interesting sections in there.

(3) Promotions : I know all of you are interested to know when the promotions for this year will be announced. The process for AEF review has proceeded reasonably well in spite of the fact that this year a whole new system came into effect. Boards, for the first time, did all their reviews by reading the AEFs on a computer screen. This new electronic method, which State has been using for several years now, was initiated for this cycle at USAID. The reaction from board members was positive, for the most part. There were a few glitches in the beginning but things went smoothly after that. The line-drawing exercise was carried out with AFSA present and the nominations for promotion are being cleared by the Inspector General’s office as well as Security. If all goes well, the promotion announcements should go out before Labor Day. So, keep a look out for the General Notice soon.

(4) Tenure Announcements : The Agency published the names of 37 newly tenured Foreign Service Officers late last month. AFSA congratulates all of them on this career milestone. Please see the new Vanguard for details on who was tenured.

(5) Journal Article : I hope that by now you have seen the July-August edition of the Foreign Service Journal, with a focus on nonproliferation. If you haven’t already, please check out also my latest VP Voice article, wherein I posit the idea of a cabinet-level Department of Global Development.

(6) Visitors Welcome : We encourage walk-ins at the AFSA office, which is located in RRB 2.10-C. My open-door policy is always in effect. I am available via phone at 202-712-1631 and e-mail at fzamora@usaid.gov. Senior Labor Management Advisor Doug Broome is on leave through August, but may be reached at dbroome@usaid.gov. The main AFSA/USAID number is 202-712-1941, while AFSA HQ is at 202-338-4540.