The Foreign Service Journal, October 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2014 51 The June AFSA survey of Foreign Agriculture Ser- vice ocers went beyond the general assessment of employee morale in the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey and identified specific policy changes that AFSA can work with FAS management to implement. The topics includedWash- ington assignment policies, promotion and time-in-class/ time-in-service rules, and employment opportunities for retirees. For the first time, employees were also asked to assess the relative perfor- mance of the main program areas in FAS. Washington assignments have been a long-standing issue, because Foreign Ser- vice ocers are expected to spend a third of their career in Washington. While not perfect, the current policy of having ocers compete with Civil Service employees for rota- tion assignments at grade received the most support from survey respondents. There was very little sup- port (only 11 percent) for a proposal by Civil Service employees to expand this process beyond rotations to oer promotion opportunities for Civil Service employees. FAS TIC and TIS policies have evolved dierently from those at State, so there was interest in moving in the direction of State’s policies in some cases. In particular, employees supported adopt- Member Survey Identifies Needed Changes DEPUTY SECRETARY BURNS MEETS AFSA GOVERN I NG BOARD AND COMMI TTEE MEMBERS Deputy Secretary of State William “Bill” Burns met with AFSA Governing Board and committee members at a breakfast held at AFSA headquarters on July 31. After more than three decades in the Foreign Service, Deputy Secretary Burns is retiring this fall. He is the second serving career diplomat in history to become Deputy Secretary. Above, from left: AFSA President Robert J. Silverman, Burns and AFSA State VP Matthew Asada. AFSA/ÁSGEIRSIGFÚSSON FAS VP VOICE | BY DAVID MERGEN AFSA NEWS Views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the AFSA FAS VP. Contact: david.mergen@fas.usda.gov or (202) 720-3650 ing the State policy of giving a TIC/TIS extension to employ- ees in long-term language training. There was also support for allowing ocers who retire due to mandatory TIC or TIS limitations to depart during the regular summer rotation to the extent possible. One of the proposals with greatest support was changing the current pro- motion rules to require the FAS administrator to set the number of promotions at each grade prior to the delib- erations of the promotion boards, rather than determin- ing the number of promo- tions after seeing the board rankings. Equally popular was the proposal to increase the use of retirees for temporary assignments by establish- ing a reemployed annuitant program in FAS. For the first time, members were given the opportunity to assess the relative per- formance of theWashington program areas that support them overseas. Overall, members were reasonably happy, with most program areas receiving a median score of 7 or 8 (on a scale of 1 to 10). The Oce of the Chief Operating Ocer, which provides budgetary oversight for the agency, was a notable exception with a median score of 3. The comments indicated dissatisfaction with delays in receiving budgetary resources and with micro- management of how the funds are spent—problems that AFSA has raised with management. We were very pleased with the high participation rate in the survey (75 percent) and will be working with manage- ment over the next months to implement the changes identified. n