GCLO Turns 40

On Wednesday, September 5th, the Global Community Liaison Office (GCLO) celebrated the 40th anniversary of its opening in 1978. The event took place in the Exhibit Hall of HST/Main State from 2 to 4 p.m. and was attended by some 120 people who either were connected with the GCLO in some way or who wanted to show their support. This included many members of the GCLO Staff, both past and present, a group of people from the AAFSW including our president, at least one State Department official who had been present when the office opened in 1978 and a number of current State Department employees as well. As for the program,… Read More

Continue Reading

The Global Community Liaison Office: Celebrating 40 Years of Making a World of Difference

March 1st of 2018 was the FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY of the opening of the Global Community Liaison Office in the Department of State. Its establishment may well mark the only time that a volunteer organization (in this case the Association of American Foreign Service Women – AAFSW) succeeded in changing the structure of the State Department bureaucracy to insert a totally new function (the Global Community Liaison Office – GCLO) which would provide needed support to Foreign Service family members, and by extension to the mission of the Department of State. Some of us can remember life before GCLO and can only marvel at what the Office has become. Those who entered the… Read More

Continue Reading

Marilyn Janet Holmes: Memorial Service June 11

Marilyn Holmes, a member of AAFSW for almost 25 years, was an award-winning documentary producer for the U.S. Department of State and a former Director of the State Department’s Global Community Liaison Office. She died on Tuesday, May 17th, 2016 at Georgetown University Hospital. She was 82. Marilyn was born in Paris in 1934. In 1940, when German troops invaded France, seven-year old Marilyn and her mother fled Paris in a mass exodus of French citizens. After an arduous journey, they finally reached Lisbon where they were able to secure safe passage on one of the last ships to leave for the United States. After spending her formative years in France… Read More

Continue Reading