Subject: AFSA: The State Department Proposals To Reengineer The Foreign Service Open Assignments System
REF: A) State 133247, B) State 121681
1. AFSA urges all Foreign Service personnel to read ref A very closely. That message deals with extremely important matters central to your careers and lives. If you feel strongly about these issues, please respond to AFSA and DG Direct.
2. Ref B, sent two weeks ago, was the first shoe to drop in what we have since learned is a series of measures proposed by the Department to reengineer the open assignments system. These proposals are consistent with the Secretary's Transformational Diplomacy concept and her desire for the Foreign Service to become "more expeditionary". Of equal importance, these proposed changes are specifically designed to encourage employees to volunteer for the nearly 800 unaccompanied overseas positions that now need to be filled during each assignment cycle, especially those in Iraq. The package that ultimately emerges will put the open assignments system much more in sync with the Department's priorities.
3. A year ago we all understood that the highly-touted new Career Development Programs (CDP's) for FS Generalists and each category of FS Specialists were the Department's solution to the challenges of staffing unaccompanied and severe hardship posts. It is apparent to us that the Department has now concluded that the CDP's are a medium to long-term solution that does not address what has become an acute short-term staffing problem. Because unaccompanied tours are for only 12 months, the pressure on the system to staff them is relentless as the same jobs reappear in every assignments cycle.
4. The Department and AFSA share a strong desire to maintain the present system of staffing all positions for tenured personnel on a voluntary basis. We recognize the Secretary's clear authority to move to directed assignments if she chooses. In an era when the Department places great emphasis on sound management practices, and given the clear and obvious advantages of having people in positions where they choose to be, we in AFSA believe that we should work closely and constructively with the Department to support its assignment objectives while preserving an assignments system that lives up to the Department's publicly articulated priorities of being employee friendly and family friendly.
5. Concerning the specific proposals contained in ref A, AFSA supports the general thrust of the proposed changes, namely to improve the assignments process so that it is faster and easier for the Department to match its highest priority jobs with the most qualified people and to improve the overall fairness and transparency of the assignments system. AFSA reluctantly agreed to the Department's changes to the rules relating to extensions, although we believe that the Department needs to show some flexibility and consideration of personal circumstances, particularly as they relate to family and educational issues, and to implement some transition rules that will permit exceptions for such family and educational issues for those who were assigned to posts under the old extension rules. We believe that the Department should also modify this new policy to exempt all hard language designated positions.
6. In order to support the objectives of the Secretary and the Director General and to preserve the volunteer nature of our assignment system, AFSA is inclined to accept: the proposal to create a fourth season in the assignment process and fill unaccompanied posts at the beginning of the cycle; the requirement that "handshakes" not be registered by HR/CDA until the start of the applicable assignment season (with special arrangements made for those employees coming out of an Iraq PRT where they have been guaranteed one of their top five onward assignments); and the strengthening of the role of HR/CDA in the assignment process. AFSA has some questions, however, about the proposed increase in "fair share" bidding requirements - which would restrict "fair share" bids to those at 15% or greater hardship posts. Finally, we have serious concerns about the proposal to change the 6/8 rule to 5/6, which we believe would effectively limit Foreign Service members to two regular domestic assignments in a row, even for those who have just completed multiple overseas hardship postings or have personal reasons to stay longer in Washington. More generally, we question the impact that this proposed long-term change would have on the Department's ability to meet its short-term need to fill its unaccompanied positions.
7. AFSA has already met several times with Department management to discuss these proposals and will have further opportunities to do so in the near future. We want to make sure that both we and the Department understand all the implications of these changes and that unintended consequences are minimized. There is some urgency here because the Department would like to incorporate these changes into the bidding instructions and guidelines for the 2007 Open Assignments cycle. In order to represent the concerns of our membership, we seek your feedback and reaction. We all understand what is at stake here, given the possibility of directed assignments. Please send your thoughts to both AFSA and DG Direct.
Alrededor de cincuenta puestos en la Embajada de Estados Unidos en Bagdad siguen vacantes pero no hay voluntarios; el Departamento de Estado ha declarado que si siguen vacantes, comenzarían a forzar las asignaciones. "Debemos seguir adelante con la identificación de oficiales para servir si es necesario dirigir asignaciones", declaró la Secretaria de Estado Condoleezza Rice este viernes.

"Si otros dan un paso al frente, como algunos han hecho, encontraremos cómo ocupar estos nuevos trabajos como hemos hecho antes – con voluntarios. No obstante, no importa cómo se ocupen, estos trabajos deben ser ocupados."

Desde que la vacante de 48 diplomáticos en la embajada fue anunciada, tan sólo 15 diplomáticos se han ofrecido para trabajar allí; las asignaciones diplomáticas son prácticamente siempre ocupadas por voluntarios.

Sin embargo, en la reunión del Departamento de Estado, Jack Crotty – un veterano del Departamento de Estado con 36 años – subrayó el principal problema: es "una potencial sentencia de muerte". "Una cosa es si alguien cree en lo que pasa allí y se ofrece", decía Crotty, "pero es otra cosa enviar a alguien en una asignación forzada", prosiguió.

No obstante, el Embajador de Estados Unidos para Iraq, Ryan Crocker, respondió que tales miedos eran equívocos: "debemos ir y servir, no debatir la política, no estar de acuerdo con ella".

Mark Bellamy, un antiguo secretario de estado asistente, quien se encuentra en el Centro de Estudios Estratégicos e Internacionales, también cuestionó la misión diplomática. "Cómo se hace la diplomacia y el trabajo de desarrollo en un ambiente tan violento como éste", demandó Bellamy. former deputy assistant secretary of state who is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, also questioned the entire diplomatic mission.

La Zona Verde puede ser un lugar desmoralizador para que un diplomático viva. Además del riesgo físico, la violencia que rodea la vida cotidiana en Bagdad crea una atmósfera aislada. La idea de viajar más allá de la zona fortificada es estrafalario y sólo bajo gran guardia.

La única asociación que los diplomáticos tienen con iraquíes promedio es con aquellos que trabajan en la embajada. También estos iraquíes temen por sus vidas, ya que son catalogados de "contribuidores".