The Foreign Service Journal, October 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2020 69 AFSA NEWS Expanding Our Outreach, With Your Help AFSA formally launched its public outreach campaign on Sept. 22 with the online panel discussion, “Foreign Service on the Front Lines: Bringing Americans Home,” cohosted with the National Museum of American Diplo- macy. This program featured stories from active-duty Foreign Service officers who provided first-person accounts of the efforts to repatriate Americans at the onset of the pandemic. Through our public out- reach campaign, “The U.S. Foreign Service: Our First Line of Defense,” we aim to highlight the important role that the Foreign Service plays in our national security. This message and the materials we have developed are designed to illustrate this work in ways that will reso- nate with new audiences. We need your help to broaden the constituency for the Foreign Service. We are asking retired members to help us share the story of the Foreign Ser- vice locally, or further afield through virtual outreach opportunities. While tradi- tional speaking events are not currently possible, virtual engagements may open new opportunities and new audi- ences. We stand ready to sup- port your outreach efforts and have developed a variety of materials that are at your disposal. We hosted a webi- advocacy. Changes to assignments (21 percent) and promotion procedures (20 percent) were also listed as high priorities. In reviewing our survey results, we see that the foreign affairs agencies have much work to do before the Foreign Service succeeds in building a truly inclusive institution. As Congress introduces legis- lation to help bring about a more inclusive Foreign Service, we will also use the results to shape our input.  AFSA is committed to doing everything we can, including looking deeply at our own board compo- sition, to ensure we are representing you as fairly as we can. Going Forward. Thanks to everyone who responded to the survey. Your voices are incredibly important to our advocacy. As we promised, the survey results have been shared with State man- agement, including senior leadership, and will be shared with other AFSA constituent agencies. We will also post the survey results, by agency, on the AFSA website. If you have questions on the survey results, please contact AFSA Director of Professional Policy Issues Julie Nutter at nutter@ afsa.org. n Things you can do: • Join the roster of messengers by contacting AFSA Strategic Messaging Coordinator Nadja Ruzica at ruzica@afsa.org. • Familiarize yourself with the materials on our mem- ber page at afsa.org/first-line-defense. • Reach out to your local community college and other community organizations to explore virtual opportu- nities to share AFSA’s message. • Follow AFSA on social media and share the tweets and posts with your community, friends and family. nar in early September with retired members to share how to get involved in this campaign and the resources available, including a tutorial on virtual platforms. If you missed the webi- nar and/or are ready to get involved, please email AFSA Strategic Messaging Coordinator Nadja Ruzica at ruzica@afsa.org . We also ask all our members, including those on active duty, to join us in mag- nifying our reach on social media networks. Social media is an easy way to share information and stories with many people, no matter their location. And we have developed a social media toolkit to make it easier for you to be more active (if you are not already) We stand ready to support your outreach efforts and have developed a variety of materials that are at your disposal. in this medium. You can use ready-made messages, create your own or just repost our social media posts—it’s that easy. The toolkit and other materi- als can be found on our campaign page at afsa.org/ first-line-defense. Keep an eye on the AFSA Media Digest daily for reminders and suggested messages. We need are looking espe- cially to our retired members in your home communities, to assist in achieving our goal of reaching new audi- ences across the United States and to ensure broader support for the Foreign Service. The time is now, the resources are available— are you ready to join us? n