promotion boards
What’s New in the FY22 O4 Promotion Board Convening Order?
TL;DR BLUF
- O4 promotion results will be delayed by 5-6 weeks because the board started late.
- Do Joint Professional Military Education.
- Be operationally relevant.
- Be a model of Honor, Courage, and Commitment and don’t get in trouble.
- Going to Guam or Japan certainly can’t hurt.
- Get board certified as soon as you can.
What’s a Convening Order?
Convening orders tell promotion board members what to look for when selecting people for promotion, so it is usually a good idea to examine them for changes. I’ll give you a summary of what is new. Here are the FY21 and FY22 documents:
Date of the Board
The board was delayed from March 24th to May 3rd. Expect the promotion results to be delayed by a similar interval.
Promotion Opportunities
The promotion opportunities changed:
- MC – decreased from 100% to 95% because that is the new maximum promotion opportunity
- DC – decreased from 82% to 73%
- MSC – increased from 60% to 65%
- NC – stayed the same at 80%
Rest of the Changes are Same as the FY22 O5 Convening Order
All the rest of the language changes are a carbon copy of the FY22 O5 changes, which you can read about here.
Translation Please?
What does this mean for an O3 in Navy Medicine? I think it means the following:
- O5 promotion results will be delayed by 5-6 weeks because the board started late.
- Do Joint Professional Military Education.
- Be operationally relevant.
- Be a model of Honor, Courage, and Commitment and don’t get in trouble.
- Going to Guam or Japan certainly can’t hurt.
- Get board certified as soon as you can.
What’s New in the FY22 O5 Promotion Board Convening Order?
TL;DR BLUF
- O5 promotion results will be delayed by 5-6 weeks because the board started late.
- Do Joint Professional Military Education.
- Be operationally relevant.
- Be a model of Honor, Courage, and Commitment and don’t get in trouble.
- Going to Guam or Japan certainly can’t hurt.
- Get board certified as soon as you can.
- Move seamlessly across domains by starting a blog in your free time.
What’s a Convening Order?
Convening orders tell promotion board members what to look for when selecting people for promotion, so it is usually a good idea to examine them for changes. I’ll give you a summary of what is new. Here are the FY21 and FY22 documents:
Date of the Board
The board was delayed from March 24th to May 3rd. Expect the promotion results to be delayed by a similar interval.
Promotion Opportunities
The promotion opportunities changed:
- MC – increased from 77% to 90%
- DC – decreased from 83% to 75%
- MSC – decreased from 55% to 50%
- NC – stayed the same at 70%
Pages 3-6 (all page numbers from here on out reference the FY22 convening order)
They inserted language emphasizing awareness of the Great Power Competition (GPC), education, operational support, competence, character, and diversity.
Pages 8-9
They inserted a new concept to me, the 10 Signature Behaviors of a 21st Century Sailor:
They also inserted some language about commitment to personal and professional growth, connecting with yourself and others, loyalty to the Navy’s core values, and championing a culture of excellence.
Fitrep Impacts Due to COVID
They inserted a paragraph cautioning board members that COVID stop movements may have adversely impacted fitness reports and that these fitrep impacts:
“…should not be viewed adversely and the COVID-19 impact must be taken in context when viewed with the totality of the record. The board must take extra care to not disadvantage members for their inability to transfer as a result of the stop movement.”
Page 10
They inserted language emphasizing expertise in the Indo-Pacific Region.
Pages 11-13 – Medical Community Considerations
These were largely unchanged, but they qualified the importance of board certification by inserting the italicized text:
“Strong consideration should be given to board certification when a board certification exists for the specialty, provided they have had sufficient time to meet the requirements.“
They also inserted at the bottom of page 12:
“Special consideration should be given to those officers who have demonstrated the ability to move seamlessly across domains.”
Traditional domains include air, land, and maritime with recent additions of space and cyberspace. Hopefully blogging in your free time is one day seen as “moving seamlessly across domains.”
Translation Please?
What does this mean for an O4 in Navy Medicine? I think it means the following:
- O5 promotion results will be delayed by 5-6 weeks because the board started late.
- Do Joint Professional Military Education.
- Be operationally relevant.
- Be a model of Honor, Courage, and Commitment and don’t get in trouble.
- Going to Guam or Japan certainly can’t hurt.
- Get board certified as soon as you can.
- Move seamlessly across domains by starting a blog in your free time.
FY22 O4 and O5 Promotion Opportunities
Here are the O4 promotion opportunities:
Here are the O5 opportunities:
Here are the convening orders where I got these:
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – All the Posts About Letters to the Board in One Place
The question most people ask me is answered in these posts:
Should You Send a Letter to the Promotion Board?
Do You Still Need to Send the Above Zone Letter?
The bottom line is:
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.
Letters to promotion boards have a new due date. You can’t send them the day before the board anymore:
Letters to Promotion Boards Now Due 10 Calendar Days Before the Board
If you know you are getting out of the Navy and really don’t care about getting promoted, you should read this post:
What is a “Don’t Pick Me” Promotion Board Letter? Why Would You Send One?
Have you been on active duty for less than 1 year? Read this:
How to Be Considered for Promotion if You’ve Been on Active Duty for Less Than 1 Year
You now need to use your DoD ID number and not your Social Security number on letters to the board. Read this:
Use DoD ID Number and Not Your SSN on Letters to the Board
You can now submit letters electronically:
What’s New in the FY22 O6 Promotion Board Materials?
This article is a more detailed breakdown of all the FY22 O6 board material I posted a few days ago.
This looks fairly standard to me, except they inserted this page to emphasize the new policy that you can’t discuss opting out of promotion boards or taking a break for the Career Intermission Program:
Merit Reorder Slides
Here is what I would note from the merit reorder slides:
- To quote, “strict adherence to the career progressions depicted in the slides is not a prerequisite for promotion.” In other words, if your career has not followed these paths, please don’t get too stressed about it.
- Depending on your rank and career stage, I’d use this slide to guide your future decisions. This is what the promotion boards are looking for…
Community Brief
- To quote, “strict adherence to the career progressions depicted in the slides is not a prerequisite for promotion.” In other words, if your career has not followed these paths, please don’t get too stressed about it.
- I’ve done a detailed breakdown of the new career path in this post already, so I’d read that if you want more interpretation of the slides below, which are completely new this year due to the updated career path:
Here is what is new in the FY22 O6 convening order:
- The new maximum promotion opportunity for all boards is 95%. This came from the 2021 NDAA.
- The percent to select went from 91% down to 90%.
- The text on page 2 under “Fully Qualified” and page 4 under “Additional Considerations” has been completely updated. In brief, it now emphasizes knowledge of Great Power Competition (GPC) and the INDOPACOM AOR, professional education (JPME, et.), continual performance improvement, operational employment, character, and diversity. I think this is consistent with the recent push emphasis on JPME and being operationally relevant.
- Page 9 has a paragraph about not disadvantaging anyone whose fitrep was adversely impacted by COVID.
FY22 O6 Promotion Opportunities and the Documents Provided to the Boards
The FY22 convening order is out:
The O6 promotion opportunities are:
- DC – 90%
- MC – 90%
- MSC – 50%
- NC – 50%
You can see the historical MC stats here:
In addition, here are all the documents provided to the promotion boards. When I have time, I’ll break them all down and analyze them, but I wanted to post them here for your reading pleasure:
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – 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-XX 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 know that you are resigning and will not be joining the Reserves – If you are just paying your time back and getting out, do your fellow officers a favor and remove yourself from consideration. It is hard enough to promote 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 still isn’t letting anyone get out early. 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.
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).
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 