The setting Wednesday was State's expansive Dean Acheson auditorium. The event was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first Town Hall-style meeting with State Department employees since she took office last month.

The crowd was full - many employees stood along the auditorium walls for the 1-hour, 11-minute event, and the applause was warm for Clinton as she strode into the room. Senior officials were seated in the front row, among them assistant secretaries of state Dan Fried (Europe), Chris Hill (East Asia, but soon to be off to Baghdad as ambassador, we hear) and Richard Boucher (South Asia, a portfolio being gobbled up by special envoy Richard Holbrooke).

The topics ranged from democracy promotion abroad to aid to Afghanistan, but dwelt mostly--as one would expect from such a session--on issues of money and resources. Throughout it all, Clinton dealt deftly with the mostly gentle questions, displaying a quick wit and ability to address the issue at hand without making firm promises that's been honed over the years at the White House and on the campaign trail as a senatorial and presidential candidate.

Only one questioner, intern Chris Dilworth from Indiana University, asked a pithy, yes-or-no question of the type journalists favor. "Will you ban private military contracts?"

The Q was a timely one, since Iraq recently announced that it will not renew the contract of private security contractor Blackwater, and State is looking around for alternatives to protect U.S. diplomats. Clinton split the difference, saying that the State Department should "diminish our reliance on private security contractors," but quickly adding, "Whether we can go all the way to banning, under current circumstances, seems unlikely."

On Afghan aid, she revealed that senior department officials are conducting a review to determine how much money and from which accounts is going into Afghanistan. That seems to say volumes about the state of the U.S. effort in the country.

Throughout, Clinton was reassuring, positive, encouraging.

Equal benefits for same-sex partners? Clinton told foreign service Ralan Hill this is "an issue of real concern to me" and said a review of current policies is under way. "It's on a fast time-line."

More efforts to advance the rights of the women and the disabled? "You can count on my commitment to you on that," she told Stephanie Ortoleva, from State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

Greater use by State of Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites? "Yes, absolutely," the SecState said, while allowing that there are legitimate security concerns. (This question came in via the Internet from Ed Gagliardi of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, who relayed how a colleague had determined a Mexican visa applicant ineligible after scoping out the applicant's Facebook page.

Anjalina Sen, the U.S. vice consul in Guangzhou, China, asked a question many of us have been wondering about: how will high-powered special envoys like Holbrooke and former senator George Mitchell, the Middle East peace broker, coordinate their work with the State Department bureaucracy?

Clinton gave an "It Takes a Village" answer: "That's a really good question," she said. "I want your ideas about how we can integrate all of our work better."