Greetings from your AFSA State VP Daniel Hirsch.

This message contains two action items for members, two new items, and two updates.

First, let me begin by saying that AFSA mourns the passing of our colleague Victoria DeLong, killed this week in the course of her service in Haiti. We will soon be sharing our press release as the situation develops.

ACTION ITEMS:

AFSA State Annual Survey of Member Opinion: AFSA's annual survey of State member opinion is now online and is available for the next month at: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229UVTMWCKJ. Responses to the survey are anonymous. This year's survey is longer than previous surveys, and also asks more questions than usual about members professional and family status. There are two reasons for this. First, AFSA would like to better understand the demographics of our membership. Second, by asking these questions, we will be able not only to have general FS member responses, but also to separate responses according to groups, such as married or single, members of different areas of specialization, different lengths of service, different ranks, etc. This can help us better serve and represent our membership.

e-Performance: We are interested in hearing about your opinions and experiences with e-Performance. Please direct your observations to me at hirsch@afsa.org. Comments can also be sent anonymously through the State page on AFSA's website.

NEW ITEMS:

FOIA: Members occasionally need access to State-Department-held documents in order to substantiate certain claims or responses to OIG, disciplinary or security clearance matters. Currently, obtaining an FOIA response can take over a year, and sometimes two or three years, by which time the matter for which the employee needed the information will have been resolved without it. President Obama's new Open Government Directive (OMB memo M-10-06) calls for each agency to reduce backlogged FOIA requests by 10 percent per year. In early December, AFSA wrote to management, opining that expediting requests related to employee dealings with management would be a perfect choice for this reduction. Expediting such requests could reduce the Departments backlog, ensure that employees have access to information needed to respond to OIG or other requests, and improve the Departments compliance with its legal obligation to allow employees to present a full and complete response to allegations involved in disciplinary and security clearance cases. We are currently awaiting a response.

Patience: AFSA's Labor Management Office is currently handling a large number of grievances related to low rankings. We ask for your patience if our processing speed is slower than usual.

UPDATE:

Senior Performance Pay Cohort Grievance: At AFSA's request, the Department briefed AFSA on January 6, regarding the status of implementing the Grievance Boards order to reconvene SFS performance pay boards for 2007 and 2008. As AFSA previously advised, the Department erred by failing to compete for SFS performance pay all employees promoted into the Senior Foreign Service in the years 2006 and 2007. The Department must reconvene all relevant boards for those years to determine whether these employees are due performance pay. The initial reconvened board will recommend a certain percentage of employees to be sent to a performance pay board for consideration for SFS performance pay. The Department has completed the laborious process of preparing the appropriate competition lists for the 2007 and 2008 initial board review. A lengthier process has begun to prepare the appropriate OPFs. The Department has pledged to complete these boards prior to the commencement of the 2010 Selection Boards. While we are confident that all the grievants will be included on the revised 2007 and 2008 competition lists, AFSA would like to hear from anyone that is concerned that they might be left off the competition lists in either year. That is, if you have been promoted due to a reconvened Selection Board as a result of administrative error or meritorious grievance over the past couple of years and you were not competed for SFS performance pay in 2007 or 2008, you may wish to contact AFSA. Anyone that was competed for SFS performance pay in those years will automatically be included on the revised competition lists. While part of the reconvened process, those competed in the past are not entitled to any or additional performance pay as a result of these reconvened boards.

Overseas Comparability Pay: The authorization locality pay for FY10 was included in the FY10 Omnibus Appropriations bill that was passed and signed into law at the end of the December. The full fix and permanent authorization was passed by the House as part of H.R. 2410, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act. The Senate has yet to introduce this bill, but we are hopeful it will be sometime soon.

Once again, I hope you will help us by participating in our survey of member opinion. Lets make 2010 a year of accomplishment and improvement of working conditions and resources for the entire Foreign Service!