Employee Association 

Manager of the Year Award

In April, Ms. Sally Debbaugh of the 

U.S. Government Employees Recreation 

Association (USGERA) in Tunis, Tunisia 

was selected for the 2004 Manager of the 

Year award (based on her performance 

during 2003). Ms. Debbaugh was cited for 

cutting costs while at the same time 

increasing the USGERA’s income by 

almost ten times compared 

to the previous year. The 

board was also extremely 

pleased with her hard work 

and innovative managerial 

skills. In 2003, Ms. 

Debbaugh recruited, hired 

and trained her 8-member 

staff, implemented the 

Third Country Diplomat (TCD) program, 

installed a point of sale system, increased 

inventory turnover, improved post morale 

through community events, and negotiated 

new concessionaire services for USGERA 

customers. 

Second place was awarded to Jay 

Crawford of the Employee Welfare 

Association (EWA) in Tokyo, Japan for 

his enthusiastic leadership, customer 

service attitude, and commitment to new 

business opportunities. Third place was a 

tie between Shaun Parker of the American 

Embassy Employees Association (AEEA) 

in Kiev, Ukraine and Tom Davis of the 

U.S. Employee Association (USEA) in 

Islamabad, Pakistan. Mr. Parker was cited 

for increasing cash flow and the AEEA’s 

involvement in the community and Mr. 

Davis was cited for his dedication and 

creativity and increasing the USEA’s cash 

flow. 

This year’s Manager of the Year award 

was exceptionally difficult to decide as 

there were so many nominees and all were 

outstanding. The remaining nominees (in 

alphabetical order by post) are: 

-- Beirut, Tami Azzi 

-- Cairo, Shaila Contractor 

-- Dhaka, Annette Nuttall 

-- Helsinki, Barry Mederrick 

-- La Paz, Yvonne Lyons 

-- Lagos, Rose Gregoire 

-- Muscat, Marci Moore 

-- New Delhi, Som Nag 

-- Oslo, Joseph Perez 

-- Ouagadougou, Alfred Kabore/ Jeff Allen 

-- Quito, Maryanne Macris 

-- Seoul, Young Kim 

-- Stockholm, Tiffany Engstrom-Young 

-- Tel Aviv, Michael Labrecque 

-- Warsaw, Beata Smialek 

-- Yerevan, Rod Rumsey 

The annual awards process is 

announced each January. Nominations are 

submitted by Boards of Directors based 

upon the manager’s performance for the 

calendar year just prior. The winners 

receive framed certificates and a cash 

award. Copies of this year’s nominations 

are available from CR upon request. 
 Congratulations again to the winners 

and nominees for making 2003 a great 

year! 

4TH OF JULY 

 EVENTS

It’s that time of year again! Time to 

celebrate the birthday of the U.S. of A. 

Around the world, U.S. mission 

communities are gearing up for 4th of July 

events. Around CR, the staff is gearing up 

to answer questions on employee 

associations and 4th of July events. Below 

are some of the more common questions 

we receive along with our guidance on the 

issue. 

Can the association accept donations from 

outside vendors for our event? 

If vendors/businesses offer donations that 

benefit the membership, the association 

may accept them, provided there is no 

implication of privileges to be extended to 

them for the donation. 

Can the association run the U.S. mission’s 

4th of July party and keep a portion of 

ticket sales? 

It is appropriate for the employee 

association to plan/organize and manage a 

4th of July celebration for the mission 

community, to include ticket sales. The 

employee association should identify the 

venue and all costs associated with the 

event prior to establishing the ticket price. 

Additionally, given the nature of the event, 

the employee association should obtain 

appropriate liability insurance prior to the 

event - if the board has not already done 

so. In addition to ticket sales, the 

association may also provide concession 

sales of snacks and sodas, etc (and keep 

any profits). 

Can we hold a raffle at our 4th of July 

event? 

Gambling, or games of chance, are 

prohibited per Federal Property 

Management Regulations. This applies to 

gambling in its traditional form (i.e. slot 

machines and poker games) as well as 

other types of games of chance such as 

raffles. The question really boils down to 

whether the participants of the game pay 

money in exchange for a chance to guess. 

If so, this is against regulations. If not, and 

options to play the game are given simply 

to event attendees, association members, or 

anyone who requests one, then such a 

guessing game would be OK. Additional 

questions on gambling may be referred to 

the CR Operations Team. 

Can the association hold money for the 4th

of July Committee? 

Employee associations may hold funds for 

the CLO and for CLO sponsored events. 

To avoid any misunderstandings or 

disputes, money received or distributed 

should be signed for and a clear modus of 

operandi must be written indicating how 

funds will be handled (i.e. who is eligible 

to request funds, etc.). Keep in mind that 

any money received in this manner is not 

considered income for the association and 

should not be accounted for as such. To 

avoid money being included in calculation 

of the annual assessment. the money 

should be clearly defined on the 

association’s balance sheet as a separate 

line item for the CLO. 

 

DID YOU KNOW?... 
 Customers subconsciously prefer 

fewer choices in the size of 

products and ... 

 When it comes to size, larger sizes 

tend to be the most popular 

 Finally, retail stores typically invest 

1-2% of sales per year in 

technology 

 The CR Operations Team gathered 

these nuggets of retail wisdom from the 

2004 Military Commissary Conference 

that took place earlier this year in April. 

IT ALL ADDS UP 

Unfortunately, as a 

staff, we find it fairly 

common that employee 

associations do not operate 

with budgets. For the most 

part this is true because, budgets are not 

mandated. Maybe they should be. 

No matter how small the operation, a 

budget is the single most effective 

financial management tool available to 

Boards of Directors. A budget serves to 

summarize the goals of management in a 

formal plan and allows the board to 

quantify targets for sales, cost of goods 

sold, operating expenses, net income, and 

cash flow. Budgeting becomes especially 

important for associations experiencing 

cash flow problems. By budgeting, 

management is able to respond to change 

in an efficient manner. This efficiency is 

accomplished because the budget process 

obligates the board to think ahead and 

prepare for the affects of such things as a 

change in the composition of the 

membership, loss of sales, or replacement 

of fixed assets, to name a few. Budgeting 

also compels the board to compare the 

success of one operation (e.g., 

commissary) to other operations (e.g., 

cafeteria, preschool, etc.) keeping in mind 

the overall goal that each revenue 

generating activity should be financially 

self-sustaining. 

In preparing the budget, historical data 

and trends generally serve as the 

benchmark (provided historical data is 

reasonably representative of present day 

operations). Analyzing sales is the starting 

point for budgeting for most associations 

because inventory levels, purchases, and 

operating expenses are, by and large, 

determined based on sales activity. Begin 

by listing known expenses and cash 

outlays from previous years. Review these 

and note any trends as increasing or 

decreasing. Are increases in expenses 

controllable or are they fixed? 

Project membership demographics for 

the next calendar year. How will the 

demographics affect sales and use of 

services? A great source for such 

demographic information is the CLO. 

Review past years’ markup policy on 

sales and services. Did the markup cover 

costs related to the sales/services? Did the 

revenues cover overhead expenses? Was 

the markup too low to provide for an 

adequate profit margin? Or, did 

unanticipated expenses arise? 

Review present inventory to determine 

salability. Measures should be in place to 

ensure that inventory replenishment 

selections meet the needs of the 

membership. Develop an ordering 

schedule that best suits customer needs to 

improve your inventory turnover. 

Plan for contingencies. Analyze noncash expenses such as depreciation. 

Anticipate the replacement of fully 

depreciated assets. 

After completing the above steps, you’ll 

have the necessary tools to project 

revenues, expenses, and cash 

disbursements. These projections should 

be detailed in the budget. The budget 

should be prepared based on the 
association’s reporting year – in other 

words, on a calendar year basis. 

The budgeting process does not end 

with the preparation of the report. For a 

budget to be effective, management must 

continuously compare actual performance 

with planned performance. Actual results 

should be monitored on a monthly basis. 

In fact, the board should receive monthly 

actual vs. projected financial statements. 

Monitoring actual results will allow the 

board to implement corrective measures in 

a timely manner and to assure that money 

is being spent as the board has voted it be 

spent. 

Questions regarding the budgeting 

process may be directed to the CR 

Accounting Team. For boilerplate 

accounting documents and instructionals, 

including budgets, please visit our internet 

website at: www.state.gov/m/a/c8225.htm. 

 

 Human 

Resources 

...Managing the 

Association’s Most 

Valuable Asset 

For employee associations, summer is a 

time of turnover. The board and members 

move onto other assignments while new 

members come in. As members move on, 

often the manager does the same, making it 

necessary to find and hire another 

manager. 

 Human resource management is a 

balancing act. At one extreme, you hire 

qualified people who are well suited to 

meet the needs of the business. At the 

other extreme, you train and develop 

employees to meet those needs. Most 

employee associations fall between the two 

extremes. Essentially, the employee 

association’s goal is to hire or promote the 

best qualified person or people it can find 

and afford. Afford? Hmmm. That’s a 

topic for another discussion. Best 

qualified you can find? That, I believe, we 

can address. 

 Where to begin? You’ve identified the 

need to fill a vacancy. You’ll need a job 

posting. The job posting should include 

the job title, brief description of duties to 

be performed, duty hours, duty location, 

guidelines for application, and the latest 

date to apply. You may also include 

information pertaining to pay and benefits 

(as appropriate for your particular situation 

and locale). Also consider stating the 

minimum qualifications required and those 

qualifications desired. Additionally, the 

posting should clearly indicate that the 

position is not a USG position. 

The next step is posting the job. Where 

will your applicant pool come from? 

Employee associations have a great deal of 

flexibility in the hiring process and are not 

required to follow USG regulations and 

policies pertaining to the recruitment and 

retention of FSNs. As such, your applicant 

pool may be a combination of eligible 

family members, locally resident U.S. 

citizens, local national citizens, and third 

country national citizens. Keep in mind 

employee association positions are not

subject to the priority placement of eligible 

family members at post. Bottom line, you 

hire the best-qualified person you can find 

and afford.

Employee associations should develop a 

standard job application to provide to 

applicants. Applications should be 

reviewed in their entirety prior to 

scheduling interviews. Determine who 

will review the applications. For example, 

applications for a cashier position should 

be reviewed by the activity manager (i.e., 

commissary manager, video club manager, 

club manager) or the general manager 

where no activity manager exists. The 

Board of Directors or hiring/selection 

committee delegated by the board should 
review applications for the position of 

general manager. Applicants should be 

ranked based on their level of education 

and work experience. Other experience 

may be considered as it may relate to the 

duties to be performed. All interviews 

should be conducted by the same 

individual or individuals to ensure 

continuity and fairness in the selection 

process. Standard questions should be 

developed for use in interviews to include 

some job-specific questions. For example, 

accounting applicants should be queried on 

basic accounting principles. 

Upon completion of all interviews, a 

selection may be made and 

an offer extended to the 

selected applicant. 

Many associations often 

overlook the next course of 

action: draft an 

employment agreement 

outlining those details of 

his/her employment. A 

boilerplate employment agreement is 

available from our internet website at: 

www.state.gov/m/a/c8225.htm. 

The employment agreement must take 

into account local labor laws as they apply 

to employees. (In some countries local 

labor laws may also apply to third country 

nationals and/or U.S. citizens.) Often, 

post’s human resources office can provide 

guidance pertaining to local labor laws. 

Keep in mind, a signed contract may not 

supercede applicable labor laws, even for 

locally resident U.S. citizens. Once 

drafted, feel free to request a review from 

the CR staff. In general, we can point out 

potential areas of concern. However, we 

will be unable to identify violations of 

local labor laws. For that, you must utilize 

a local attorney or other individual at post 

intimately familiar with such laws. 

Now that you have carefully crafted the 

employment agreement, you need only 

obtain the appropriate signatures. 

Employment agreements should contain 

one board member signature (usually the 

Board Chair) and the employee’s 

signature. 

Present the employment agreement to 

the employee along with his/her 

description of duties and the association’s 

employee handbook. Upon signature, a 

copy of the agreement should be provided 

to the employee. The original document 

should be retained in the employee’s file. 

What’s next? Now that your newly 

appointed employee is on staff, how do 

you retain him/her? You must ensure that 

the individual is provided the necessary 

tools to perform the job while developing 

his/her skills. To do so 

will require a 

combination of resource 

materials, training, and 

feedback. Resource 

materials and on-the-job 

training must be 

developed in-house and 

tailored to each 

individual employee associations’ needs. 

The best method for providing and 

receiving feedback is performance 

reviews. In the next issue of the CRonicle, 

we’ll follow-up this article with guidance 

for developing employee standards, 

implementing the performance review 

process, and tips for incentives that will 

help to keep your employees happy.