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Consular Staffing:
AFSA has long been concerned about the visa adjudi-
cator gap and its potential impact on the ELO career
path. Specifically, we did NOT want to ELOs to do two
or more 100% consular tours in a row with no opportu-
nity to work in-cone. AFSA embraced the Department’s
Consular Fellows program, contributing multiple sugges-
tions as to how the Department could increase recruit-
ment to the program, including through making it easier
for family members to participate.
Couriers:
After several years of lobbying by AFSA, the Depart-
ment increased the TIC for FS-4 Couriers from 15 to 20
years. AFSA had been pressing for this change because
the very low promotion rate (an average of 5% or less)
from FS-04 to FS-03 resulted in mandatory retirement
for many before they became eligible for any kind of
an annuity, as well as needlessly getting rid of many
experienced and valuable employees.
EFM Employment:
For years AFSA has been arguing that EFM employment
(or the difficulty/lack thereof) is one of the biggest
complaints our members have, especially when it came
to the non-portability of security clearances. Conse-
quently, we were delighted when the Department finally
announced the creation of the Foreign Service Family
Reserve Corps, a mechanism which will allow EFMs to
maintain their security clearance when they transfer.
Employee Organizations and Affinity Groups:
AFSA continues to work closely with and rely heavily on
several employee organizations and affinity groups, and
was delighted to welcome two new ones (one focused
on tandem couples and one focused on parents of
children with special needs) in 2016. AFSA co-hosted a
panel on assignment restrictions with AAFAA, frequent-
ly consulted with GLIFAA on issues of relevance to its
members, pushed hard for the Department to
respond to proposals suggested via AFSA by Balancing
Act to improve conditions for new parents, and lob-
bied the Department to address issues of concern to
Working in Tandem and (separately) the Foreign Service
Families with Disabilities Alliance. When the shortened
bidding season made it more difficult for families await-
ing post clearances for medical issues, AFSA stepped in
and brought the issue to the attention of Department
officials in a position to help.
FSI Rosslyn Annex:
As soon as it learned of the Department’s plans to open
an FSI annex in Rosslyn, AFSA began advocating on
behalf of future students, particularly with regard to
ensuring that those students had access to the same
childcare, lactation, parking, and transportation options
as their NFATC colleagues. When a temporary problem
occurred during the first month of operations, AFSA
stepped in and the problem was resolved overnight.
Labor Relations Course:
AFSA’s LM team collaborated with HR/PC and FSI to
create an online Labor Management Course that is
scheduled to launch in the spring of 2017. The course
will include the nuts and bolts of labor management
relations, information on employee, management and
union rights and obligations as well as some historical
information on AFSA’s formation as the exclusive
representative and professional organization of the
Foreign Service.
Linked Assignments:
This year, AFSA agreed to a cap of 110 linked assign-
ments available to eligible bidders who agreed to serve
in positions advertised in the 2017 Priority Staffing Post
(PSP) Cycle. We also agreed that, if the 110 links were
filled by December 15, 2016, the number of links could be
increased to 150. In addition, in an attempt to encour-
age lower-level bidders, a limit of 50 links was set for
Officers and Specialists at FS-02 and above. We also
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