Author: Joel Schofer, MD, MBA, CPE
Navy Legislative Fellowship Call for Applications – O3-O5
Here you go…
UNCLASSIFIED
ROUTINE
R 221506Z JAN 18
FM CNO WASHINGTON DC
TO NAVADMIN
INFO CNO WASHINGTON DC
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NAVADMIN 010/18
PASS TO OFFICE CODES:
FM CNO WASHINGTON DC//N1//
INFO CNO WASHINGTON DC//N1//
MSGID/GENADMIN/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N1/JAN//
SUBJ/2019 NAVY LEGISLATIVE FELLOWSHIP CALL FOR APPLICATIONS//
REF/A/DOC/BUPERS/12NOV10//
AMPN/REF A IS BUPERSINST 1560.21F, LEGISLATIVE FELLOWS PROGRAM.//
RMKS/1. This NAVADMIN solicits applications for the 2019 Navy Legislative
Fellows Program. The Legislative Fellows Program allows naval officers,
senior enlisted and Department of the Navy civilians to broaden their
understanding of the legislative process and the operation of the U.S.
Congress through a year-long full-time assignment to the office of a member
of the House of Representatives or the Senate. The Legislative Fellows
Program also enhances the ability of the Navy to fulfill its role in the
national policy development process.
2. This is a highly competitive program. Records must reflect sustained
superior performance and potential for future assignments in critical
billets. Upon completion of the program, officers earn an additional
legislative qualification designator. Additionally, there is an opportunity
to earn a legislative studies certificate through a sponsoring agency.
3. Military Applicants. Participation is open to all Active Duty and Full-
Time Support unrestricted line officers, restricted line officers, and staff
corps officers in the permanent grades of O-3 through O-5. Enlisted
participation is open to all Navy occupational specialty codes in the
permanent grades of E-7 through E-9. The selection process will focus on
individual performance, promotion potential, academic and subspecialty
qualifications, needs of the Navy and availability for follow-on assignment.
Officers with permanent change of station orders already issued will not be
considered.
a. Applicants must be available for permanent change of station
assignment to Washington, DC, from November 2018 through December 2019.
During the fellowship, officers and senior enlisted Sailors will be assigned
to the Office of Legislative Affairs for administrative purposes. Upon
execution of orders, fellows agree to serve for 3 years following completion
or termination of the fellowship. A follow-on utilization tour in
legislative affairs is preferred (making career timing an important
consideration), but depends on community-specific billet requirements, needed
officer progression and availability of legislative assignments. All officer
applicants must contact their detailers for counseling on the career impact
of participation in the Legislative Fellowship Program.
b. Submit applications via email to the Office of Legislative Affairs
point of contact no later than 31 March 2018. Program information and
submission guidance is available on the Navy Legislative Affairs website at
http://www.navy.mil/local/ola/legislative_fellowship1.asp.
c. Points of contact are CDR Danielle Wooten, Navy Fellows
Program Manager, who can be reached at (703) 697-2885/DSN 227 or via e-mail
at danielle.wooten(at)navy.mil, LCDR Ian Lopez, Graduate Education Placement,
PERS-440, who can be reached at (901) 874-4056/DSN 882 or via email at
ian.lopez(at)navy.mil or LCDR Kevin Yost who can be reached at (901) 874-
3996/DSN 882 or via e-mail at kevin.yost1(at)navy.mil.
4. Civilian Applicants. Senior civilian employees, GM/GS-13 and above or
equivalent, interested in the Legislative Fellowship Program must contact
their local civilian training officer for information on submission of
applications for the 2019 program. Parent commands are responsible for all
program costs. Questions concerning Department of the Navy civilian
participation should be directed to Ms. Janet Evans who can be reached at
(202) 685-6493/DSN 325 or via e-mail at janet.m.evans(at)navy.mil. A
description of the program can be found at
https://portal.secnav.navy.mil/orgs/MRA/DONHR/Training/Pages/CHFP.aspx.
5. This NAVADMIN will remain in effect until superseded or canceled,
whichever occurs first.
6. Released by Vice Admiral R. P. Burke, N1.//
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Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy
Here’s a PDF of the recently released strategic document:
Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy: Sharpening the American Military’s Competitive Edge
What is a “Don’t Pick Me” Promotion Board Letter? Why Would You Send One?
If you go to the Navy Active Duty Officer Promotions Page, you’ll find this at the bottom:
Sample “Don’t Pick Me” Letter to the Board
Removing the introductory portion, here is what the meat of this letter says:
1. Per reference (a), please remove my record from consideration by the FY-1X Active Duty (Grade) (Competitive Category) Selection Board.
That’s it. All it says to the promotion board is, “Don’t pick me.”
Why would or should a physician send a letter requesting NOT to be considered by a promotion board? Here are a few reasons:
- You are an O4 or O5, know that you are resigning, and that you will not be joining the Reserves – If you are just paying your time back and getting out, do your fellow officer a favor and remove yourself from consideration. It is hard enough to promote to O5 and O6 nowadays. Having one less person to compete with helps out those who are willing to stick around. Yes, if you are picked and get promoted soon enough you could get some extra pay for a little while before you resign, but I’d say the general karma of letting someone else get the promotion outweighs that small financial benefit.
- You are an O4 or O5 who is retiring but you know that if selected for promotion you won’t accept it – Why would someone not accept a promotion? Because a promotion to O5 or O6 obligates you for 3 more years if you intend to retire. And the Navy isn’t letting anyone get out early anymore. If you want to get out as fast as possible with a 20 year retirement, taking a promotion to O6 in year 18 means you must stick around until year 21 at least.
Why is a “Don’t Pick Me” letter not applicable if you’re an O3? Because for physicians the promotion opportunity is “all fully qualified” or 100% for O4. In other words, if everyone was fully qualified they could promote every physician who is a LT to LCDR. They generally don’t, but they could. You taking a promotion doesn’t hinder someone else’s promotion like it does for O5 and O6.
So…if #1 or #2 above are applicable, consider sending a “Don’t Pick Me” letter. And remember, they are now due 10 days before a board convenes (not 24 hours like before).
BUMED Policy and Practice Officer – O5/O6
Billet Title: Policy & Practice Officer, Office of the Medical Corps Chief, BUMED
Location: Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Defense Health Headquarters, Falls Church, VA
Rank: O5/O6
Corps: Medical Corps
Tour Length: 36 months (beginning July 2018)
Billet Description:
Mission: Direct, design, develop and evaluate all Medical Corps policy initiatives in support of and in continuous alignment with BUMED Strategic Goals. Research and revise policy related to professional practice based upon relevant statutes and regulations on community, regional, and national levels. The effect of this position is far reaching in terms of the sustainment, changing nature, and future growth of the Navy physician community, as well as the successful career development of individual Navy Medical Corps officers.
Functions: Draft, prepare and coordinate routing of policy action packages for the Corps Chief Office. Act as the Medical Corps representative for a variety of committees to include but not limited to National Defense Authorization Act Working Groups, Collaborative Care Board, Master Privilege List Group, Medical Corps Professional Review Case Panel, and Medical Corps Professional Review Board. Coordinate corps specific plans and policy activities with appropriate BUMED Codes. Collaborate and network with Policy and Practice Officers from other corps on enterprise wide policy matters. Manage selection of and communication with Medical Corps specialty leaders, to include coordination of specialty leader business meetings.
Command Relations: Ability to communicate effectively to a 1 or 2 Star Admiral on a regular basis.
Experience Required: Highly recommended to have:
Knowledge of Department of Defense, Navy, Navy Medical Corps policies and instructions and policies of other Federal entities as needed. Experience with recruitment, retention, and public speaking. Networking skills, written and oral communication skills.
Other: Time available to perform clinical work at multiple MTFs in the National Capital Region. Time available to travel for CME. TAD travel possible throughout the year for Medical Corps Chief related events.
POC: For further information about the billet please contact CAPT Christopher Quarles (contact info in the global address book).
Navy Times – Paternity Leave for Sailors Will Soon Double, Navy Says
Here’s a link to the article:
My E-Mail to the Promotion Board – Private or Not? Which is it?
Today I e-mailed a letter for my upcoming O6 promotion board. To find the instructions on how to e-mail the board, I went to this page, which happens to be the PERS page on officer promotion boards. I noted the following:
To ensure more efficient processing and for internal tracking purposes, a recommended subject line of your email is “FOUO-Privacy Sensitive Board Package: Active-Duty [Rank][Line/Staff] Board, FY-YYXXX” (where YY represents the last two digits of the fiscal year of the selection board and the XXX represents the actual 3-digit board number and you insert the appropriate parenthetical information).
I added the bold over “Privacy Sensitive” above.
Like a good Sailor, I followed instructions…only to receive an e-mail reply (as confirmation that they received my letter) that said this:
*****PLEASE READ IMPORTANT BOARD INFO BELOW***** *****SENSITIVITY OF YOUR EMAIL MUST BE NORMAL DO NOT MARK PRIVATE*******
Further down:
1. DO NOT send any email marked as PRIVATE. We are UNABLE to view those emails you will need to RESEND your email submission…
Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out. I guess I’ll be resending that e-mail tomorrow.
Retirement and Separation/Resignation Requests Now Requested in NSIPS
I announced this change back in November, but it has officially gone live. Anyone with access to NSIPS is required to use it for retirement and resignation requests effective 1 January, 2018.
The new system allows members to initiate retirement and separation requests electronically via NSIPS self service, route them through their chain of command for review and recommendation, and then electronically route the request to Navy Personnel Command (NPC) for a decision. This improvement provides transparency for service members as to the status of their request, provides an integrated waiver process when needed, and provides an electronic notification of the final disposition of the request for both the member and the command.
Also of note, statutory retirement notifications are now being generated through NSIPS to eliminate printing and distributing business letters via the postal service. A statutory retirement occurs when a LCDR hits 20 years of commissioned service (not counting enlisted time), a CDR 28 years, and a CAPT 30 years.
How I Write My Fitrep
O5 fitreps are due soon, so it is time for me to write my fitrep. How do I do it? Here are the steps I go through:
- I get the Surgeon General’s priorities and the convening order for last year’s O6 board. (If you were an O4, you’d want the O5 convening order. If you are an O3, you’d want the O4 convening order.)
- I read through them, highlighting the important language (similar to what I did in this very popular post). I do this because I use this exact language to take my accomplishments and frame them in the setting of strategic Navy initiatives. This allows me to demonstrate Navy-wide impact, which is the goal when you are trying to prove to people that you deserve to promote.
- I take my CV, which is the document I use to track my accomplishments, and I edit it so that it only includes what I did during the time period covered by the fitrep. Here’s what was left, which is what I use to build my blocks 29 and 41.
- I print out a copy of my last fitrep.
- I download the Word template you use when drafting a block 41. This template eliminates some of the spacing issues you run into when printing your fitrep only to find that the last line of your block 41 narrative isn’t there anymore.
- I boot up NAVFIT98A and I start writing the fitrep, as outlined in Joel Schofer’s Fitrep Prep.
- Once I have a draft ready, I put it aside for 24 hours and/or have someone else who I trust read over it. Having a mentor or two take a look is always a good idea.
- I read it one more time, ensuring that I spell checked it.
- I submit it up the chain of command.
That’s it!
Do You Still Need to Send the Above Zone Letter?
The standard advice has always gone something like this:
“If you are above zone, you need to send a letter to the promotion board so that they know you are still trying to promote. Otherwise they won’t pick you.”
Now that they no longer stamp officer records with “AZ” (above zone) and they look exactly the same as those records that are in zone, do you still need to write a letter to the board? Has the standard advice changed?
Reasons to Send a Letter to a Promotion Board
I addressed this in a post from a few years ago entitled “Should You Send a Letter to the Promotion Board?” I still agree with just about everything in that post, except for this:
“…you should always send a letter to demonstrate interest in getting promoted when you are above zone.”
In my opinion, you no longer need to send a letter just because you are above zone. If you have another reason to send a letter, then please do. If you are just sending one because you think you have to, I think that is no longer necessary.
The FY18 O6 board convening order states on page 2:
“…in determining which officers are best and fully qualified for promotion, you are required to equally consider both above-zone and in-zone officers.”
What if You’re Not Sure?
As you might imagine, I get asked a lot whether someone should send a letter to the promotion board. This is my standard response…
Pretend that you did not send a letter to the board, the board is over, and you were not selected for promotion. Are you going to be kicking yourself for not sending the letter? If the answer is yes or maybe, then send the letter. As long as you keep it short and sweet, there is no real downside.
Frankly, I think that when officers send letters to promotion boards they are often just making themselves feel better, and there is nothing wrong with that. You want to make sure that when the promotion board results come out, no matter what happened, you feel like you did everything you could to get promoted.
The Bottom Line
If you are above zone and want to send the letter just so there is no regret, feel free, but it is definitely not required to be considered for promotion.
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 