US embassy cable - 05DJIBOUTI93

UNCLAS DJIBOUTI 000093 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958 
TAGS: CMGT, DJ 
SUBJECT: CONSULAR LEADERSHIP DAY PROMOTES PROFESSIONALISM IN 
DJIBOUTI CONSULAR SECTION 
 
 
1. (U) Djibouti conducted a Consular Leadership Day on 
Tuesday afternoon, January 25. The entire consular section 
met for several hours to discuss issues and challenges 
facing our section in the coming year. The theme of the day 
was professionalism: the importance of professionalism in a 
U.S. Consular Section and how to improve our professional 
image to the American Citizens we serve as well as the host 
country. 
 
2. (U) The day was appreciated by all involved. Tangible 
results included a reorganized weekly schedule in order to 
dedicate hours to answering our increasing number of general 
inquiries. In so doing, we hope to improve our response time 
on handling routine ACS issues as well as improve our flow 
for handling IV cases. Also an important change was to set 
aside specific hours for training. Due to the relative 
inexperience of most of our consular staff, hiring and 
training concerns were discussed at length. 
 
3. (U) We also brainstormed strategies to improve the 
organization of our workspace. We agreed that the current 
layout is an inefficient use of very limited space, which 
causes us to waste time searching for files and forms. This 
hurts our professional image when it becomes apparent to our 
constituents. Reorganizing the consular area to improve 
efficiency was agreed to be a top priority for 2005, which 
we have already outlined in proposal form to Washington.