January 2006
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE JANUARY 2006 StateStateMAGAZINE WWalkalk thethe WWALKALK Embassy Information Management Officer Dan Siebert, center, set up this computer lab. He and other Americans volunteer their time to help Lesotho move forward. IN OUR NEXT ISSUE: Lesotho–Kingdom in the Sky State Magazine (ISSN 1099–4165) is published monthly, except bimonthly in July and August, by the U.S. Department of State, 2201 C St., N.W., Washington, DC. Periodicals postage State paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing locations. MAGAZINE Send changes of address to State Magazine,HR/ER/SMG, SA-1, Rob Wiley Room H-236, Washington, DC 20522-0108. You may also EDITOR-IN-CHIEF e-mail address changes to [email protected]. Bill Palmer State Magazine is published to facilitate communication WRITER/EDITOR between management and employees at home and abroad and Jennifer Leland to acquaint employees with developments that may affect oper- WRITER/EDITOR ations or personnel. The magazine is also available to persons interested in working for the Department of State and to the David L. Johnston general public. ART DIRECTOR State Magazine is available by subscription through the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS Office, Washington, DC 20402 (telephone [202] 512-1800) or on the web at http://bookstore.gpo.gov. Teddy B. Taylor For details on submitting articles to State Magazine,request EXECUTIVE SECRETARY our guidelines, “Getting Your Story Told,” by e-mail at Larry Baer [email protected]; download them from our web site at Kelly Clements www.state.gov;or send your request in writing to State Magazine,HR/ER/SMG, SA-1, Room H-236, Washington, DC Pam Holliday 20522-0108. The magazine’s phone number is (202) 663-1700. Pat Patierno Deadlines: January 8 for March 2006 issue. February 8 for April 2006 issue. PHOTOGRAPHS: (ABOVE): U.S. EMBASSY IN LESOTHO; MEXICO BORDER CONSULATES (OPPOSITE PAGE): CONTENTS JANUARY 2006 A palm-lined path of the East Parque Central in downtown Ciudad Juarez. 10 MEXICO BORDER CONSULATES NUMBER 497 10 POST OF THE MONTH: MEXICO BORDER CONSULATES 2 Direct from the D.G. More than a million people cross the 2000-mile border each day. 16 OFFICE OF THE MONTH: RECRUITMENT, EXAMINATION 3 Letters to the Editor AND EMPLOYMENT This office is the face of the Foreign Service to a growing pool of applicants. 4 In the News 20 BEHIND THE SCENES: FS ASSIGNMENTS Fairness and transparency are goals in FS assignments. 47 State of the Arts 22 MYTHS AND MAGIC 48 Medical Report Civil service mentoring grows by leaps and bounds. 24 NEW TOOLS FOR NEW TIMES 50 Appointments Resource Center helps employees manage careers. 26 AWARDS DAY 51 Retirements The Department celebrates its diversity of talent. 38 DIALOGUES, NOT MONOLOGUES 52 Obituaries Embassy sponsors first exchange between Americans and Belgian Muslims. 40 BRANDED Symposium explores links between design and diplomacy. ON THE COVER 42 IN APPRECIATION Secretary Condoleezza Rice, Department announces new retirement career recognition. Under Secretary Henrietta Fore and employees take a 45 MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE power walk with their free Department earns half of the 2005 Presidential Quality Awards. pedometers to promote the 46 COOPERATING ON SCIENCE Healthier Feds program. State office leads U.S.-China meeting on science and technology. Photo by Michael Gross DIRECT FROM THE D.G. AMBASSADOR W. ROBERT PEARSON Accomplishments and Challenges I would like to offer skills that they brought in with them. The combination of my best wishes to you broadened experience and enhanced skills is designed to and your family prepare us for the challenges of a constantly changing world. members for a happy, I am particularly pleased that we are beginning to make healthy and prosper- real inroads into a topic that has vexed the Foreign Service for ous 2006. The New a number of years—employment for our spouses overseas. In Year is always a good addition to improving the opportunities for work within our opportunity to reflect missions, we are also looking outside to the wider communi- on our accomplish- ty.We are providing new types of support for family ments and look ahead members seeking employment—from culturally specific to the challenges of resume writing to referrals and workshops. These innovative the coming year. programs are now providing services in 32 countries. We In the two-plus years of my tenure as Director General, I have also launched pilot programs to provide training to am pleased to report that, working together, we have put in family members on starting up web-based businesses and place a number of building blocks that fully support the professional fellowships to family members. Secretary’s vision of transformational diplomacy and better I am pleased that our very successful Civil Service prepare us to meet the demands of diplomacy in the 21st Mentoring program has grown to nearly 400 participants. In Century. Under the Diplomatic Readiness Initiative, we hired addition, a number of our Civil Service colleagues are partic- a large number of highly qualified people into both the Civil ipating in a range of leadership development programs, Service and the Foreign Service. At the same time, we devel- congressional fellowships and academic training opportuni- oped new recruiting strategies to get the skills and diversity ties. Since many of our Civil Service colleagues will soon be we need. eligible to retire, we have been aggressively recruiting new Like all agencies, we have finite resources. Since we do not talent through two very well known federal intern programs: have reserve units around the country the way the armed the Federal Career Intern Program, called the Career Entry forces do, we have transformed the Foreign Service and the Program at State, and the Presidential Management Department as a whole into a Readiness Reserve, a corps that Fellowship Program. Both are intensive two-year training we can draw on to meet whatever need arises, whenever it programs that are intended to groom the next generation of arises. We are also staffing the Office of the Coordinator for Civil Service leaders. Reconstruction and Stabilization, the first of its kind, to lead Our Foreign Service National employees form the back- and manage the USG civilian response in post-conflict situa- bone of our operation abroad and will play a key role as we tions or where USG action may help prevent conflict. move toward the Secretary’s goals. In light of their work, we To keep track of our skills and talents and improve our have made permanent the annual FSN conference, which ability to respond, we created Employee Profile Plus (EP+), a allows our most talented employees to contribute to our Department-wide inventory of skills in 285 categories, implementation strategies and in turn receive updates on our including languages, for all our Civil Service and Foreign initiatives. In response to feedback during these conferences, Service personnel and annuitants. We are planning to expand we have created retirement alternatives at selected posts and EP+ to also include family members of Foreign Service are working on the feasibility of a global supplemental employees overseas and Foreign Service National employees. defined contribution plan. EP+ allows us to quickly identify those with the skills needed We recognize that there is a lifetime relationship between to meet any emergency. our retirees and the Department, and we are making signifi- In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we needed Lao, cant efforts to maintain that relationship. In May, we Vietnamese and Khmer speakers who could work closely launched RNet, a secure Internet-based retirement program with the various ethnic fishing communities in the southern that allows us to better serve the needs of our retirees and to United States to give assistance to them. Because of EP+, the tap into their expertise. We now deliver electronic pay state- Department could quickly and effectively meet that need. No ments to all interested retirees. We are counting on everyone other foreign affairs agency has this capability. to help us advance our transformational diplomacy. We have established a Career Development Program that With your advice, help and support, I am confident that allows Foreign Service employees to gather regional expert- substantial progress will continue to be realized as we look ise, increase foreign language competency and build upon ahead together to the new year. I 2 STATE MAGAZINE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Helping Retirees of time or having the call transferred assist a large number of retirees to come As a person who’ll retire next year, to persons unfamiliar with RNet. online. We are dealing with technical I’ve been positively impressed by the Trying to report my problems online, issues on a one-on-one basis, preferably initiatives such as RNet to better serve per the instructions on the RNet site, over the phone, to walk retirees through retirees and give them access to infor- resulted in an automated error the process. Regrettably, this is time-con- mation. I’m prompted to express message. Hopefully, others are not suming and resulted in a delayed overdue thanks for these new services experiencing the same difficulties. response time during the first few weeks. by the sidebar in the November issue For these delays, we offer our sincere about efforts to contact and assist G.L. DeSalvo apologies. retirees in the wake of Hurricane Foreign Service Retiree The RNet web site is a Human Katrina. Bravo to all involved. It was Resources web site with extensive securi- the right and caring decision. Thank David Dlouhy, director of the Office of ty controls, backed by an authentication you also for reporting the news. It was Retirement and administrator of the system to ensure that only those eligible the first I had heard of it.