Photo by Paige WeaverThe Washington Post reports on a cost-saving measure the District is employing that sticklers for etiquette could argue is a faux pas, but which frugal citizens may see as economical: re-gifting.
When city officials greet visiting foreign dignitaries and delegations, “standard diplomatic protocol demands that guests not leave empty-handed.” The protocol office shells out a variety of gifts, many boasting the slogan, “Taxation without representation.”
But D.C. doesn’t just dispense gifts, it also receives them. So what to do with all the gifts the District accepts but finds little use for? The director of protocol and international affairs says repurpose them.
Case in point: During former mayor Anthony Williams’s second term, a private citizen from Turkey donated to the city a decorative porcelain dish with the District Seal, one of around 500 plates the Turk hoped might be used for entertaining.
But the plates were never used during former mayor Adrian Fenty’s tenure, so last year the director of protocol and international affairs had the idea to repurpose the gifts. She asked the donor as well as a local relative of the donor whether the dishes could be re-gifted, and both said yes. A few months ago, a delegation of officials from Chinese provinces left with one of the Turk’s plates in hand.
The cost savings could add up to a few thousand dollars a year. What do you think? Penny-wise, or bad manners?
