March 17, 1999
I took the day off from work for my birthday. In the early afternoon, the phone rang. It was the Commonwealth Fund in New York City. On the other end of the line, I could hear the St. Patrick’s Day parade as it moved noisily by their 75th Street office. The woman on the phone said that one of the Atlantic Policy Fellows had to drop out and, since I was the 10th and alternate candidate for the group of nine they were hosting, they were pleased to offer me a Fellowship. I was to spend four months in the UK!
Little did I think back in January when Evan, my boss at the State Planning Office, dropped a fellowship application on my desk saying, “You should apply,” that I would actually get one. The fellowship was perfectly designed for mid-career public policy professionals like me to spend up to a year in the UK on policy research. Evan said, “I can’t have you gone for a year; I can’t even have you gone for six months, but I can let you go for 3-4 months.”
The national competition was rigorous and, while there were normally ten fellows, this year there was only nine due to a reduction in funds. For those chosen as finalists, there was an interview in Washington DC at the British Embassy.
I made the first cut and was invited to sit for a panel of three; including Dr. William Plowden, director of the Atlantic Fellowship Program at the Commonwealth Fund; Peter Edelman, law professor at Georgetown University; and the Honorable Matthew Rycroft, first secretary from the British Embassy.
Assembled because of their knowledge in my proposed area of study—measuring government performance—the work I was leading for the state of Maine at the time―they asked informed questions about my project proposal. I was impressed when they asked, “How will performance measures improve people’s lives?” They wanted to know about outcomes! I responded that performance measures at the state level may be better able to validate the policy outcomes of government services, especially broad, cross-cutting ones like poverty reduction or improved drinking water quality that involve multiple different departments and programs working in concert. While the measures at the local level, like in those being tested in the UK, tend to assess efficiency, rather than effectiveness. For example, when measuring police response times, responding quickly to the scene of a crime is just one aspect of society’s effort to deter crime, which also includes prevention programs and sentencing and parole restrictions that are managed at other levels of government. At the local level, it is harder to discern the outcome. I said, I thought we could learn from each other―the UK and I. I did the best that I could and was hopeful.
Located on Massachusetts Avenue, the British Embassy is in the area of Washington DC known as Embassy Row. Queen Elizabeth II laid its new foundation stone when the embassy was reconstructed and enlarged in 1957. The ambassador’s residence is also there; a beautiful house built in the 1920s that resembles an English country manor. The Ambassador, Sir Christopher Meyers, hosted a reception for us there after the interviews. A Harvard Fellow himself, he offered a toast to the Atlantic policy finalists. It was surreal to be on British soil and rubbing elbows with the British ambassador and embassy staff.
A week later, I got the call. I came in 10th. But I am an alternate candidate in the event that anyone drops out. “Yeah right,” I thought.
Established in 1994 to mark the 50th anniversary of D-Day, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office sponsored the Atlantic Fellowships in Public Policy to give
…outstanding American professionals the opportunity to study, travel, and gain practical experience in public policy in the United Kingdom, including first-hand knowledge of economic, social, and political reforms, and management of the government sector.
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office
I take them at their word when they encourage us to travel within the UK as part of the cross-fertilization of knowledge and ideas.
Jody’s UK Memories 