November 30, 2018

Invitation to a Holiday Happy Hour at the Embassy of Luxembourg, 10 December 2018

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November 29, 2018

Invitation to the screening of the final episode of the BBC documentary ‘Inside the Foreign Office’ – 4 December 2018

On behalf of our colleagues Ms. Tracey Stevenson and Ms. Sophie Lott, it is the pleasure of our Board to invite you to the screening of the final episode of the three-part documentary ‘Inside the Foreign Office’ that will take place on Tuesday, December 4th at the British Embassy, 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW.

Arrival 2:15pm. Screening starts at 2:30pm (for one hour).

In the Rotunda at the British Embassy.

About the documentary:

The BBC has spent the last 18 months filming a three-part documentary entitled ‘Inside the Foreign Office’. This is a unique opportunity to better explain what the consular personnel does in the UK and overseas to support the British Public.  It also offers all an opportunity to learn about the history of their organization, and their aims and objectives moving forward.

The final episode being screened looks specifically at consular work, following three stories that include complex arrests overseas, forced marriage (featuring Sophie Lott) and the Rapid Deployment Team in action following natural disasters last year this side of the Atlantic. The latter shows the real steps taken to assist in a crisis, something Director Meg Williams had detailed during her talk to the Consular Corps.

If you would like to attend, please forward your name to Sophie Lott, Vice Consul, at the British Embassy (sophie.lott@fco.gov.uk , Tel. 202 588 6621), at your earliest convenience. Free public parking is available outside the Embassy.

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November 12, 2018

Role of OFM and their support to Foreign Missions in Washington DC, as well as to Consulates in the US.

The Board would like to announce the November Professional Program and Working Lunch. We do hope you will be able to attend.

Topic: “Role of OFM and their support to Foreign Missions in Washington DC, as well as to Consulates in the US”
Guest Speaker: Mr. Cliff Seagroves, Acting Director of the Department of State’s Office of Foreign Missions(OFM)

Event Details

Date:            Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Time:            12:00 noon     Arrival

                         12:20               Attendees sit

                         12:25               Lunch begins

Venue:          2^nd floor Drawing Rooms at the DACOR Bacon House

                          1801 F Street, NW

Washington, DC

Parking:       see below

Cost:              $45.00 for Members, $55.00 for Non-Members

RSVP:            Kindly rsvp to  Elisabeth Herndler (cc.programchair@gmail.com) no later than Thursday , November 15, 2018  (let me know which form of payment you would like to use in your reply)

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October 15, 2018

19th October. 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm Afternoon session hosted by the Consular Corps College.

On Friday afternoon, October 19th, the Consular Corps College is going to videotape its first 2 presentations for our new online Consular Corps Presentation Library.  This new initiative will provide local consular corps around the US with a library of programs like the superior consular and administrative training presentations that members of the Consular Corps of Washington, DC and WAMO group enjoy.  We would like to invite you as part of a small number of Consular Corps and/or WAMO members to attend the presentations, so that there will be real consuls and admin officials to ask questions at end of each presentation.

The taping will take place next Friday, October, 19, 2018 between 3:30 – 5:00 pm, as the Law Offices of Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe, 1101 17th Street, NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC, 20036.  There is no cost for you to attend the videotaping of these two presentations.

The first presentation will be “Steps in the US Criminal Process that Every Consul Should Know,” presented by William Coffield, Esq. and the second will be “US Employment Law Pointers for Consulates and Embassies Who Hire Locally Engaged Staff,” presented by Laina Lopez, Esq.  You may know Laina, as she was a member of the Consular Corps and has been a speaker at Consular Corps lunches.  You are welcome to attend both presentations or just one.

For the first presentation on the US Criminal Process, please arrive at 3:30.  The videotaped program will be from 3:45 – 4:15.  We will take a 15 minute break, and then have the second presentation from 4:30 – 5:00.  If you wish to attend the second presentation only, kindly arrive at 4:15.

RSVP required to Katherine Moss at  kmosscccollege@gmail.com

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October 15, 2018

18th October. 3:15 pm – 5:00 pm Afternoon Development Session: Crisis Preparedness & Response – a British perspective

The first Afternoon Development Session of this Consular Corps season will take place on Thursday, October 18th at the British Embassy, 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, from 03.30 – 5 pm. The speaker will be Mrs. Meg Williams, the British Consular Regional Director for the Americas (covering Canada, USA, the Caribbean, Latin, Central & Southern America) who has kindly agreed to give us a presentation on “Crisis Preparedness & Response – a British perspective”. Mrs. Williams’s profound experience in the field and vast responsibility will surely be a unique opportunity for all of us to learn how to be better prepared for a next eventual crisis!

Please note to arrive from 03.15 pm on allowing time for the security check & the British Embassy will kindly offer ”Tea & Biscuits” from 03.30 – 04.00 pm. The presentation will start at 04.00 pm.

If you would like to attend, please forward your name to Mary Njie, Pro Consular at the British Embassy Mary.njie@fco.gov.uk copying in Programme Chairperson, Elisabeth Herndler cc.programchair@gmail.com

Meg Williams: Consular Regional Director, Americas. Bio:

Meg has overall responsibility for Consular Services to British nationals in Canada, the USA, the Caribbean, Central and South America.  They are delivered through 80 front line Consular staff, working in 37 locations in 24 countries.  She is based at the British Consulate-General in Miami, Florida.

Meg is a career diplomat.  Before this posting, Meg was based at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, with responsibility for the Global Response Centre (the FCO’s 24/7 emergency response team), and for the Consular Contact Centres, which manage all daytime consular telephone calls to British Embassies and Consulates globally. She played an active part in the FCO’s crisis response to the 2015 Tunisia shootings of British tourists, Nepal earthquake, and the Sharm el Sheikh airport evacuations.  She worked previously on the response to crises/natural disasters in South Sudan, Ukraine, Libya and the Philippines.

Meg began her career as a Russian and German language specialist in the FCO’s Research and Analysis Department, and expertise in Russian and Eastern European affairs was an early career anchor. Other roles include a period as leader of the Diversity Team, when she introduced the first flexible working programme for FCO staff; and as Head of the Corporate Services Programme, a global efficiency programme which delivered significant (>£30m) savings in administrative functions.

Meg has four adult children and is a big fan of the great outdoors.

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May 11, 2018

Afternoon Training Session – Child Abduction and The Hague Convention

The Consular Corps of Washington DC presents an afternoon training session on Wednesday 30th May 2018 on the subject of international parental child abduction.

The purpose of this training session will be to understand what is involved in applications for the return of abducted children under the 1980 Hague Convention. This training session is designed to help consular officers maximize their effectiveness in working on child custody/abduction cases involving their nationals.

The training session will be hosted at The Embassy of the Czech Republic, by Counsellor, Head of Consular Affairs, Pavel Pitel.

• 2:30 – 3:00 p.m. – Registration for the event

• 3:00 – 3:05 p.m. – Opening remarks by Pavel Pitel, Counsellor, Head of Consular Affairs, Embassy of the Czech Republic

• 3:05 – 3:10 p.m. – Remarks by Deputy Assistant Secretary Karin King

• 3:10 – 3:25 p.m. – Remarks by Principal Legal Officer for the International Hague Permanent Bureau’s Latin America and Caribbean Region, Ignacio Goicoechea.

• 3:25 – 3: 30 p.m. – Moderator opens the roleplay by introducing the participating characters and describing the mock Convention case.

• 3:30 – 3: 35 p.m. – Mexican Central Authority (MCA) official will describe the procedures the MCA would go through while processing a case, covering topics such as required documentation and the role the MCA plays liaising with the U.S. Central Authority (USCA).

• 3:35 – 3:40 p.m. – USCA country officer will describe the procedures he or she would go through after receiving a case from the MCA, covering topics such as required documentation, location efforts, voluntary mediation, and Article 16 letters.

• 3:40 – 3:50 p.m. – Break

• 3:50 p.m. – Roleplay reconvenes.  Moderator directs judge and lawyers to take the stage.

• 3:50 – 4:00 p.m. – The attorney for the Left Behind Parent (LBP) and the attorney for the Alleged Taking Parent (ATP) make opening remarks outlining their respective cases.  The LBP attorney will cover the elements of the prima facie case.  The attorney for the ATP will preview plans to raise Article 13(a) and Article 13(b) defenses.

• 4:00 – 4:05 p.m. – Judge directs the LBP’s attorney to call the LBP to the stand.  LBP’s attorney questions the LBP.  Questions are designed to make the prima facie case, covering topics such as the habitual residence of the children, the age of the children, the LBP’s custodial rights prior to the alleged retention, and the LBP’s actual exercise of those rights.

• 4:05 – 4:10 p.m. – LBP’s attorney’s questioning concludes.  Judge directs ATP’s attorney to call the ATP to the stand.  ATP’s attorney questions the ATP.  Questions are designed to make arguments related to Articles 13(a) and13 (b) exceptions to return.

• 4:10 – 4:15 p.m. – Judge summarizes arguments and renders a decision, which should include provisions regarding the safe return of the children (the when, where, and how of the return arrangements).

• 4:15 p.m. – Judge renders a decision.  Moderator directs MCA country officer and USCA country officer to discuss the judge’s order and safe return options.

• 4:15 – 4:20 p.m. – MCA country officer and USCA country officer discuss safe return options.

• 4:20 – 4:45 p.m. – Moderator concludes roleplay and opens the floor to question and answer session.  Audience members ask questions to moderator and actors about the roleplay.

• 4:45 – 5:00 p.m. – Short Reception and Toast to the 2017-2018 Consular Corps Year and our Partnership with the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Venue: Embassy of the Czech Republic, 3900 Spring of Freedom Street NW, Washington, DC 20008

Posted In: News

April 19, 2018

Professional Program and Working Lunch at The Willard Intercontinental Hotel

The Consular Corps had its final lunch and professional program of 2018 yesterday in the Willard Hotel’s new Private Dining Room, hosted by our member, Katie Marland. Members were treated to an exquisite menu. As well as a fantastic lunch there were presentations given by Jeremy Cassano and Ian Catlett, Esq. from US State Department’s Office of American Overseas Citizens’ Services on how to handle a consular case when the national of your country has mental health issues.

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March 1, 2018

From Notification of Death to Repatriation of Remains: What Every Consul Needs to Know

On Friday 23rd February The New Zealand Embassy hosted the Consular Corps of Washington DC for a Professional Development Session titled ‘From Notification of Death to Repatriation of Remains: What Every Consul Needs to Know’.

The session featured presentations by Dr. Robert Mitchell The Chief Medical Examiner for The District of Columbia and Archer Harmon of Fairfax Memorial Funeral Home. Dr Mitchell explained to us the process of what happens from a body being found dead, to the inquest and autopsy, and up to a death certificate being issued and the body released to a funeral home. Archer Harmon presented on the process of repatriating a body or ashes back to the deceased’s home country.

Below are the PowerPoint presentations that were used by both speakers.

DC OCME Introduction to Consuls

Repatriation Presentation

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September 26, 2017

Opening Pub Night at The St. Regis Hotel. Friday 22nd September

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August 24, 2017

New Format Introduced for the 2017-2018 Year

In order to meet the changing needs of the consular community, the Consular Corps is introducing a new format for the 2017-2018 year.  Beginning this September, the CC will sponsor 3 major afternoon training sessions for consular officers only, followed by social Get-Togethers open to all members, friends and colleagues; 2 working lunches with speakers; the Opening Pub Night; several Friday Night Happy Hours; and the Annual Ball.  Programs and events will be posted on our Event Calendar as they are scheduled.  Check back often to see what is coming up and join us!

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