through this website, AAFSW receives a small percentage to help fund out activities and services. 
AAFSW Outreach
- www.aafsw.org
- Global Link Newsletter
- Realities of Foreign Service Life
- Support for Foreign Service Authors
- Foreign Service Oral History Project
- The Foreign Service Youth Foundation
- Elderhostel
- Facilitation and Consultation
www.aafsw.org
Founded in 1996 by Melissa Hess, a Foreign Service spouse, this website is a primary online resource and community for American diplomatic family members. Along with information about AAFSW activities, services, and membership, it offers extensive links and information for those new to, or considering entering, the U.S. Foreign Service. A members-only section offers more specific information about current AAFSW programs and events with online reservation and payment forms, a member directory, an extensive collection of archived articles and newsletters, and a Washington, D.C. resources section (under development).
Each month AAFSW's newsletter, Global Link, is issued in PDF format to AAFSW members and Community Liaison Officers worldwide. Global Link reports on regulation changes and proposals that affect families, association and member news, profiles of outstanding Foreign Service family members, and tips on a wide range of topics that affect the Foreign Service community. The newsletter also offers free classified advertising to AAFSW members. Over twenty years of back issues are archived on this website.
For more information about Global Link, or to query regarding an article for submission, please contact the AAFSW Creative Director at newsletter@aafsw.org.
Realities of Foreign Service Life
Sponsored by AAFSW this two-volume book series offers an honest, balanced view of the realities of living the mobile Foreign Service lifestyle. Writers from the U.S. Foreign Service community share their views and personal experiences through essays about all aspects of Foreign Service life. Of interest to newcomers or veterans of the Foreign Service, and particularly useful to those contemplating a Foreign Service career. Click here for purchasing information.
Support for Foreign Service Authors
AAFSW provides support to authors in the Foreign Service. Some publications in which AAFSW has played a part include "Married to the Foreign Service: An Oral History of the American Diplomatic Spouse," "The Expert Expatriate: Your Guide to Relocation Abroad," "Foreign at Home and Away: Foreign-Born Wives in the U.S. Foreign Service," and "Realities of Foreign Service Life," among others.
Foreign Service Oral History Project
The AAFSW Spouse Oral History Collection is housed at the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training at the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia.
Established in 1986, the Spouse Oral History Collection continues to
interest researchers and journalists. To note the fiftieth anniversary
of the start of the Korean conflict, Kristie Miller, Washington correspondent
for the LaSalle, IL, News Tribune, based her column on an interview with
Patricia Bartz recorded in 1987 and featured in Jewell Fenzi's Married
to the Foreign Service, which is available from AAFSW.
Mrs. Bartz was one of 682 women and children (and one man) evacuated from
Seoul June 25, 1950 with no emergency plan. The evacuees crossed to Japan
on a small freighter designed for a 12-man crew; it carried a cargo of
fertilizer that shifted in heavy seas. Temperatures plunged and there
were no blankets or warm clothing. When food was eventually air-lifted
to the evacuees, only the strong voluntary leadership of one woman averted
a riot. There were pregnant women and a case of polio on board, and Bartz
found it miraculous that the ship reached Japan with everyone alive.
Journalist Miller later noted that the experiences of Foreign Service spouses add a new perspective to U.S. diplomatic history. ADST has produced a CD-ROM containing over 140 of these Spouse Oral Histories, available from the ADST. Researchers should contact Marilyn Bentley at 703-302-6990 or at marilyn_bentley@adst.org.
To be interviewed for the spouse oral history program, email oralhistory@aafsw.org.
The Foreign Service Youth Foundation
The Foreign Service Youth Foundation was established in July 1989 to coordinate the efforts of all groups in the Department of State interested in assisting Foreign Service youth with their mobile lifestyle. Its primary goal is to develop programming on behalf of Foreign Service young people and to ensure funding for these projects. The Foundation grew out of the recommendations of the "Youth Project Committee" formed in January 1989 by AAFSW, the Family Liaison Office (FLO) and the Overseas Briefing Center (OBC) at the Department of State.
Support and promotion of Around the World in a Lifetime (AWAL) activities are two of the major functions of FSYF. AWAL, the Foreign Service teen club established by teens and their parents in 1983 to assist youngsters with reentry, also includes training and social programs for Foreign Service teenagers going overseas. Another major function is the support and promotion of Globe Trotters, the Foreign Service pre-teen club established in 1998 to provide programs similar to AWAL for pre-teens. AAFSW continues to be closely associated with FSYF and provides grants on an a regular basis.
AAFSW regularly contributes volunteer speakers to AFSA-hosted Elderhostel programs. These twice-yearly programs serve to educate and inform the public about the Foreign Service. Each week-long program has a geographic theme and gives participants the opportunity to visit the State Department, FSI, and an embassy relating to the theme. The programs are enthusiatically received and rewarding for all concerned. For more information about the Elderhostel programs, visit the American Foreign Service Association at www.afsa.org.
AAFSW provides presenters to many of the FSI Transition Center courses aimed at providing information to both employees and family members. Notably, AAFSW provides a facilitator for the spouse-oriented portions of the Transition Center's Job Search Program ("Life After the Foreign Service") This course explores the changes that occur in the entire family's life after retiring from the Foreign Service.
For further information on AAFSW outreach programs, email office@aafsw.org.