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Keeping the Foreign Service Family Friendly
What AAFSW is Doing for You
By Ann La Porta, AAFSW Co-Liaison to AFSA. Originally published in AAFSW's Global Link.
From the time when AAFSW was instrumental in founding the Family Liaison Office (FLO) over 25 years ago the organization has been in the forefront supporting our Foreign Affairs families. Where we perceived there was a need, AAFSW has lobbied for the families. We have effected changes in State Department’s policies towards dealing with families.
After the 444 day hostage situation in Tehran ended in 1981, AAFSW began to work with the Department to see what support could be given to families evacuated because of political or other crises overseas. In 1985 the Evacuee Support Network was formed. We worked closely with FLO, especially when large numbers of evacuees descended upon Washington. After 20 years, the Bureaus have now taken on this duty, supporting families who are evacuated from posts because of dangerous conditions. Involuntary Separate Maintenance Allowances (ISMAs) have been increased to better meet the needs of families who have been evacuated or who have spouses in unaccompanied posts.
In 1998 AAFSW hosted an Inter-Agency Round Table on Elder Care which focused the Department on Elder Care needs. The department launched a policy review. Now it is possible for both the employee and the spouse to make two round trips each tour to help an aging parent.
AAFSW members actively lobbied on the Hill to secure the possibility for some 300 spouses who worked overseas in “permanent, intermittent, temporary” (PIT) positions to buy back retirement benefits which were not available during the years they worked. The regulations and funding are now in place for claims to be filed.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s double pronged policies of Transformational Diplomacy and Global Repositioning announced in January 2006 have added new pressures for Foreign Service families. Under her new guidelines for promotion into the Senior Foreign Service employees must meet five of seven requirements, one of which is serving in an unaccompanied post. In 2001 there were 200 unaccompanied positions in posts which were considered too dangerous for families. Today there are 800 positions at two dozen posts. More than one-third of upcoming assignments will be to unaccompanied posts.
FLO has created a new position, Program Specialist for Unaccompanied Tours, to help meet some of the needs of this increasing number of families. The specialist’s name is Nan Leininger and she can be reached at LeiningerNW@state.gov.
AAFSW’s website, www.aafsw.org, has added a new section “Going It Alone”. The heading, which can be accessed through the home page masthead, lists resources at FLO and elsewhere. The section includes articles by spouses and how they have coped with the separation as well as opportunities to add your own experiences.
Besides the website, AAFSW maintains a YAHOO! listserve group dedicated to information sharing for and by Foreign Service families. “Livelines” can be accessed and joined through the website. This free group is moderated by an AAFSW member currently posted with her husband in Stockholm. Livelines now has more than 1200 subscribers. Group conversations range from “Will there be a nursery school at my next post?” to employment and separation issues. It is an invaluable source of information for Foreign Service families.
In 1995 in an effort to streamline the process of moving overseas, transiting and coming home, State established what is now called the “Service Corridor”. Of the 21 different sources of support for families relocating 9 are now located in the Service Corridor with a further 10 either close to or in the Main State building. These include the FLO, travel, transportation and the Employee Service Center. Families passing through with a cramped schedule have one-stop shopping to accomplish most of the details involved in moving plus the cafeteria, much needed during the long process. Also employees have ready access to their Bureaus.
State Management now proposes to move the Service Corridor completely out of Main State to an annex across the street in Columbia Plaza. Employees would be separated from their offices and business appointments; families would have nowhere to eat during the frantic moving process. AAFSW, AFSA, FLO and the Director General all oppose this plan. However, Management, claiming that the need for office space for high-level bureaus supercedes the needs of transiting employees, has already moved Transportation out of the corridor.
AAFSW, primarily through President Emerita and State Liaison Mette Beecroft, has been lobbying vigorously since last November against this move. We will continue to do so in our efforts to keep State Department “family friendly.”
Another thing we will do is to reconstitute the Forum. This is a special committee which looks into and addresses the concerns of families. The Evacuee Network, the Elder Care project, the PIT Buyback have all been projects initiated by the Forum. In this time when Foreign Service employees and their families are being asked to make extraordinary sacrifices for their country we feel that we must explore what we can do to support the families. Our out-going President, Judy Felt, has volunteered to chair the Forum Committee. We will be looking for committee members and issues in the near future.
While we recognize that diplomacy is changing, we still feel it should be a career where families can live together when the circumstances are safe, and that families should be supported when they must be separated.