The observations and updates of a foreign service family. Will post our travels here as we wander on our diplomatic adventure.

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Saturday, September 25, 2010

It's Bidding Season!!

Its bidding season! Amazing how time flies by so fast...thinking that we only have 9 months left to do here in Cameroon. Specialist and Generalist who are transferring next summer are bidding now for their next post 2011. The list for Jeff came out just after he got back from R&R, Claire and I were still in the Philippines. He emailed it to me so I could look at it and think about it. When Claire and I got back, we really worked to get our list together. Jeff has to submit 6 "core" bids...those are jobs that he meets paygrade and skills requirements. Anything after that is considered "non-core". Of the 6 core bids, only 3 can be in the same bureau or geographic region...and you rank them high/medium/low. So only 3 EAP bids!! After the 6 core bids, anything goes...they could all be in the same region and they don't even have to be in your skill code, but you're kind of wasting your bids if you do that. There are also rules about "fair share", and 5/8...these refer to people who haven't been posted to a hardship post for a certain number of years, or to people who have been in DC too long. We don't have to worry about those issues because this is our first post and we're at a differential post already! So we ended up submitting a total of 10 bids. We think we have a good mix of places...Asia, Central/South America, India, North Africa, Europe.In bidding for your next post there are things to consider like schools if you have kids, and if a family member has a respiratory problem then you can't bid on the post that has a high % of pollution...not to mention everyone has to have a Class 1 medical clearance (most of the time). The only thing we are concerned about when going to our next post is the school for our little Claire. If we get any of the posts that we bid on, that's fine with us. We can only express our preference for posting, diplomats must be willing to serve worldwide according to the needs of the service. Hopefully by December we know where we're going but of course before the next post is HoMeLeave first!:)
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Maria,
My husband and I just found out Friday we will be posted to Yaounde this spring. It will be our first tour and we were very surprised on Flag Day. We are looking forward to the adventure and have lots of questions. Is there anyway I can get your email address? Thanks.

Beachaddict said...

Hi, Congratulation!!! Yaounde is pretty neat place for a first post, very laid-back and we have a wonderful small community. Not much to do in yaounde though but the embassy is adjacent to the golf course so bring your club if you have one and golf lessons is very cheap too. kribi beach is our only getaway. The embassy CLO (community Liason Officer) is Awesome always had something going on for the spouses or EFM. Please email me at glcloud9@yahoo.com I really love to tell you more about Yaounde, feel free to ask. Are you guys taking a french class at FSI?

Beachaddict said...

Hi, Congratulation!!! Yaounde is pretty neat place for a first post, very laid-back and we have a wonderful small community. Not much to do in yaounde though but the embassy is adjacent to the golf course so bring your club if you have one and golf lessons is very cheap too. kribi beach is our only getaway. The embassy CLO (community Liason Officer) is Awesome always had something going on for the spouses or EFM. Please email me at glcloud9@yahoo.com I really love to tell you more about Yaounde, feel free to ask. Are you guys taking a french class at FSI?

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