AAFSW's Interest Groups

Foreign-Born Spouses Group

The AAFSW Foreign Born Spouses Group is a close-knit group of members from far and wide, from various cultures and countries. The FBS Group meets once a month, every third Wednesday of the month - from January through December.

AAFSW's Foreign-Born Spouses enjoy a Japanese tea ceremony at the home of a member.

The group usually meets at a member's home for pot luck brunch or lunch but seldom just for coffee. Sometimes, the get-together is held at a restaurant for a change of atmosphere in which case the members pay for their own meals. The group doesn't meet for tea because some members have children in school and they want to be home when the kids return in the early afternoon.

The group usually invites a speaker from the Washington area to talk about topics of interest to the members, as well as to get reacquainted with members who have been assigned back to Washington, those who are between assignments, on home leave, to welcome new members, and the spouses of recent graduates of A 100.

The group welcomes both male and female spouses. The members are of various ages. They are spouses of those who have retired from the Foreign Service to the newly hired.

The organization is also a wonderful resource, especially for the foreign-born spouse living in the greater Washington, D.C., area for the first time. Best of all, it provides members with an opportunity to meet other spouses who are in similar situation. Some members say that attending the FBS Group meetings gives them that wonderful feeling of being overseas once again!

The Foreign Born Spouses is a very welcoming and friendly group. Any AAFSW member, whether foreign born or not, is welcome to attend. For more information e-mail fbspouses@aafsw.org.

Former CLO Association

This support group for current and former Community Liaison Office Coordinators, has aligned itself with AAFSW and is ready to "take off". The organization has existed for several years, but struggles to keep the membership in contact with each other. We all move so often that it has been hard to maintain our focus and our goals.

Since our union with the AAFSW, the CLO Association has gained valuable benefits, including space on this website, as well as permanent home, phone number and administrative support at AAFSW headquarters. A directory of members will soon be available in the Members-Only section of the site, and we hope to be able to chat online as a group eventually.

AAFSW is dedicated to creating and sustaining our Foreign Service community around the globe through it's newsletter (Global Link), this website, Livelines, Washington-area interest groups, scholarships, our Housing Office, and so much more.

To continue this tradition of service, however, AAFSW needs members. We encourage CLOs to join, and to obtain a membership for the CLO position at your post. We also hope you will promote AAFSW membership in your post newsletter-we have asked FLO to help us make a sample article available to you-and that you will make our brochures prominently available at your post.

We all appreciate the work that CLOs do to support your posts, and we are grateful for anything you can do to support AAFSW as well. Please let us know if you would like more information, or would like to receive our brochures via snail-mail.

If you are a CLO or former CLO and would like to be a part of this great organization, you can contact the group coordinators at clogroup@aafsw.org, or call the AAFSW main office at 703-820-5420.

Washington D.C. Playgroup

The AAFSW Playgroup was founded in 1997 by a group of stay-at-home Foreign Service parents who had recently returned to the Washington, D.C. area. Since then, with the support of AAFSW, the playgroup has grown to include members from other foreign affairs agencies, in addition to the State Department.

The AAFSW Playgroup invites all moms and dads of preschoolers to join us when you're in the DC area.  We meet on Thursday mornings (prone to change) from 10am-noon at various parks or homes of members in the Falls Church/Vienna area.  Several parks nearby have toys just waiting there for your little one to discover, most are fenced, and all have swings, sand boxes and new equipment. 

Several recent members have found the group especially helpful because it put them in touch with other foreign service spouses who were just coming from or just going to a post they'd just come from or were going to.  As we all know, the small-world stories are alive and well in the foreign service and our playgroup has birthed a few of its own! 

We understand the concerns of travelling with small children or having babies abroad and we help with the whole "wrapping your brain around it" so you don't feel so stressed.  We're here for whoever wants to meet a good friend who you can expect to cross paths with again.  As a matter of course, those of us who are posted to DC also help newbies get oriented.  Need a pediatrician, realtor, dentist or hairdresser?  Just ask! 

For more information about the AAFSW playgroup email playgroup@aafsw.org. For more information about starting a playgroup in Maryland or the District of Columbia, email the AAFSW Main Office at office@aafsw.org

French Conversation Group

We have been meeting for almost forty years! Women associated with the Foreign Service who would like to improve or maintain their French language skills are welcome to join. Meetings are held on the first and third Friday of each month from 10 AM to 12 PM, and rotate among member homes throughout the Washington DC area. For further information, email Christel McDonald at frenchchair@aafsw.org.

Would you like to form a language conversation group in the Washington, D.C. area?  AAFSW can help!  Contact our main office for more information.