bout de papier, Vol. 6, No. 2 (1988) — Summer 1988 // Été 1988, p. 2
Promotions are cause for champagne and celebration. But not so for the Editorial Board of bout de papier. Promotion has robbed bout of our editor only months after he slipped so naturally into the position. Dan Livermore has left a distinct legacy of sound management and ever higher quality through his efforts to make bout an effective communication tool for PAFSO. His advice and involvement as an EX will continue to be valued. Dan will take up new responsibilities as Director of the Human Rights and Social Affairs Division.
The overriding theme of editorial comments in recent issues has been communication, communication with PAFSO members, with Departmental management and with the all two small constituency beyond the hallowed halls of the “mother house” who might leap to the defense of a highly professional foreign service against the on-slaught of those who believe diplomacy is little more than cocktails and a comfy life in exotic places. bout is one medium for our message; and if McCluhan was right, that the medium is the message, we have come a long way in recent years to providing a magazine with a professional image of considerable quality. (As a newcomer to the bout de papier Board, I’m allowed to praise the efforts of those who have gone before.
But the achievements to date are no cause for complacency. Improvement is still needed. İs bout satisfying the evolving interests and concerns of PAFSO members? Is it getting its message across to senior managers and decision makers not only inside the Department, but outside! Is Il reaching and impressing a wider constituency with the realities of the Canadian foreign service? bout has become an excellent vehicle for exposing the professionalism of the foreign service through the years. We can take pride that the foreign service has fed the senior mandarate of Ottawa with highly competent individuals and has been the training ground of future cabinet ministers and even prime ministers.
We in the foreign service can take pride in our past. But bout is not only a vehicle for the past: it is a vehicle for the present and the future as well. It is a vehicle to examine issues affecting foreign service life and work from issues of foreign policy to issues of management policy. And it is a vehicle to expose the humour, the tragedy, the frustration, the satisfaction and the pride that colours life in the foreign service. It is a vehicle to foster solidarity amongst members of the service and it is a vehicle to challenge our own complacency when faced with serious problems which undermine the quality of the service. Perhaps it will also challenge those EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK who are able to take decisions that could strengthen moral and address those problems. As members of PAFSO, we need to share our concerns in order to generate an understanding of the problems and to show our willingness and ability to help find solutions.
No where was the reticence of Departmental management to speak forthrightly about serious issues more evident than at the Political and Economic Stream luncheon held in early June. Alan Sullivan, ADM, Personnel Branch attempted to rally our loyalty and our pride in the face of grim prospects for promotion (Dan and a few others excepted! by focusing on other dimensions of the job —travel, rotationality, interesting, challenging and oft-times relevant work as well as exposure to foreign cultures. Yes, these perks help many stay committed to long hours and family upheavals for salaries generally lower than other comparable professional groups. But it was distressing to discover senior management in personnel unwilling to discuss in more than superficial terms other issues of very great concern to members of the Stream. Resource cuts and allocation decisions which have eliminated any departmental support for educational leave this year (I commend readers to the article entitled “Who Needs Diplomatic Training” by Christopher Maule), which have knocked back travel budgets to half of what they were only a year ago (despite increased costs) and which have consigned many to quill pen drafting for the next three to five years pending inauguration of the COSICs system, are also of great significance to the officers who want to do a professional job. How does a “down-sized, A-based and trimmed to the bone” Department continue to implement an even longer foreign policy agenda as a “vigorous global actor”? Questions of streaming, decentralization of the aid program, spousal employment and the prospects for women officers in the service also needed to be aired.
Communication can take place in different ways. PAFSO members have a message and we have concerns. And bout is but one medium to expose the professional dimensions of the foreign service. The Editorial Board welcomes articles, letters or comments from PAFSO members and from those who share our pride in Canada’s foreign service. It is our job to ensure that bout reflects our concerns and our professionalism.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 6, No. 2 (1988) — Summer 1988 // Été 1988, p. 2. Read the rest of this issue →
