promotion boards
The FY21 O6 Promo Board Convening Order Emphasizes Operational Medicine and Readiness
What better way to spend a Valentine’s Day evening when your wife is out of town than this…
There are some new things in the FY21 O6 convening order. Grab both the FY20 and FY21 below and let’s take a look page by page:
FY-20 O6 Staff Corps Convening Order
FY-21 O6 Staff Corps Convening Order
The Method to My Valentine’s Day Madness
I went through both convening orders and noted the pages in the FY21 order that represent a substantial difference from last year’s order. I focused only on impact on the medical community (MC, NC, MSC, DC). In other words, if something was different for the JAG Corps or Supply Corps, I didn’t highlight it. Any pages not highlighted are functionally the same.
Page 2 of FY21
- The promotion opportunities changed:
- Medical Corps went from 81% to 91%
- Dental Corps from 89% to 90%
- Medical Service Corps from 60% down to 50% (bummer)
- Nurse Corps stayed the same at 50%
Page 8 of FY21
This is where the meat starts, the section entitled “Medical Community Considerations”:
The bold portions highlighted below are new from FY20:
Knowledge and proven performance/experience in a variety of settings including operational medicine, joint medical operations, and current garrison health care and fleet/FMF support is necessary.
Additionally, Navy Medicine greatly values joint experience and formal education, including JPME, with knowledge and experience in a variety of settings including joint medical operations and current garrison health care delivery and operational support initiatives.
Do you see a pattern here?
KEY MESSAGE – Navy Medicine is increasing its focus on fleet/FMF/operational support. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant to promote to O6.
Pages 9-10 of FY21
The following sentence is brand new:
Excellence in operational support settings should receive special consideration as Navy Medicine shifts greater focus to readiness and operational support.
Which brings me back to…
KEY MESSAGE – Navy Medicine is increasing its focus on fleet/FMF/operational support. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant to promote to O6.
Here is some more brand new stuff in bold:
Best and fully qualified officers for the rank of captain will be those with proven leadership experience who have demonstrated experience and expertise across the spectrum of military medicine, especially inclusive of operational experience and operational platforms. With Navy Medicine’s renewed focus on operational support and readiness, our future leaders must have shown leadership excellence in those activities.
Oh boy! I feel like I’m beating a particular drum…
KEY MESSAGE – Navy Medicine is increasing its focus on fleet/FMF/operational support. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant to promote to O6.
Read that again, people:
With Navy Medicine’s renewed focus on operational support and readiness, our future leaders must have shown leadership excellence in those activities.
MUST have shown. That’s a strong statement!
The Bottom Line
KEY MESSAGE – Navy Medicine is increasing its focus on fleet/FMF/operational support. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant to promote to O6.
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – You Should Care About Promotion Board Precepts and Convening Orders
Whenever a promotion board starts, the members are provided two items to guide them as they decide who to promote, the board precept and the convening order. These documents are available on-line and should be used to figure out how to promote and write your fitrep.
The Board Precept
The precept is released in December and can be seen anytime afterwards. For example, if you go to the FY21 O4 Staff Corps Promotion Board page and click on the link titled “SecNav Approved Precept” you’ll get the board precept even though this board hasn’t started yet.
The Convening Order
The convening order for a promotion board is not released until it starts. If you monitor the board page closely, you’ll usually be able to get it within 1-2 days after the board begins. I was able to download the FY21 O6 board convening order on Tuesday of this week (2 days ago), the day it started. You just click the link that reads “Board Convening Order”, like in this image below for the FY19 O4 Staff board:
Incidentally, this is how I always find out the promotion opportunity for all the boards and post it on the blog. It is in the convening order.
Why You Should Care
You should care about the precept and convening order because they tell you how to promote to the next rank. Go to this page and download them from the most recent boards of your next rank. You can see all the different boards circled in red here:
Click on the board for the next rank you’ll be competing for, and download the precept and convening order. If the board hasn’t happened yet (like the FY21 O4 board), then you’ll have to look at last year’s convening order (FY20).
Use these documents for two things. First, to figure out how to promote. For example, I deconstructed a past O6 convening order here.
Second, use them to come up with wording for your fitrep bullets, as discussed here where I showed you how to pull phrases for your block 41.
The Bottom Line
- Go to this page.
- Get the precept and convening order for your next rank. You might have to go to last year’s board for the convening order if the board hasn’t started yet.
- Use them to figure out how to get promoted and for writing your fitrep.
FY21 O6 Staff Corps Promotion Opportunities Released
The FY21 O6 Staff Corps promotion board started today, so they released the convening order. On page 2 you can find the promotion opportunities, which are:
- Medical Corps – 91% (the highest it has been since FY13, which is as far back as my data goes; it was 90% in FY19)
- Dental Corps – 90%
- Medical Service Corps – 50%
- Nurse Corps – 50%
If you need to review promotion board math, go here.
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-2X 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 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.
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 in zone 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 really 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).
FY21 Promotion Boards – What are They Looking At and How Can You Get Ready?
Here is a screencast/podcast of this updated lecture as well as the PDF of the slides I used:
FY 21 Promotion Boards Slide Deck
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – 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 O6 promotion board convening orders state:
…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.
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – How to Be Considered for Promotion if You’ve Been on Active Duty for Less Than 1 Year
The FY21 promotion board NAVADMIN was released in December. If you are in-zone or above-zone for an upcoming promotion board but you’ve been on active duty for less than 1 year, you should read #5 from the NAVADMIN, which says:
5. In-zone and above-zone eligible officers in the grades of lieutenant,
lieutenant commander, and commander, whose placement on the Active-Duty List
is within one year of the convening dates of these boards, are automatically
deferred unless they specifically request to be considered. The officer may
waive this deferment and request consideration for promotion, in writing,
emailed to NPC_Officer_SELBD_Elig_Waivers.fct@navy.mil or mailed to:Commander, Navy Personnel Command (PERS-802)
5720 Integrity Drive
Millington, TN 38055-0000The request must be received by PERS-80 not later than 30 days prior to the
convening date of the board. All officers are reminded it is their
responsibility to ensure their personnel records are substantially accurate
and complete.
What does this mean and why would it apply to you? Maybe you had prior service, you went to medical school, and now you’re a senior LT who is in-zone for LCDR right away. Maybe you did a civilian NADDS residency and you are in-zone right away for LCDR. There might be other situations that would put you in this position, like getting time-in-grade credit for a PhD.
If you believe you are in this position, here is what I’d do:
- Confirm you are in-zone or above-zone. How can you do this? The easiest way is to either read the Promo Prep or get the FY21 lineal list. Or you can use this document from PERS.
- If you wish to be considered for promotion to LCDR, CDR, or CAPT, so what it says above. Send the letter simply requesting this. It can probably be a very short letter. There is no need to be verbose.
- Finally, contact PERS-802: Selection Board Eligibility Branch because I know people who did only #2 (sent a letter) and were not considered. Here’s what their website says:
If you have questions concerning promotion boards, eligibility for promotion boards, please contact the MyNavy Career Center at (833) 330-MNCC or askmncc@navy.mil.
- PERS-802, Branch Head: (901) 874-4537
- Officer Active and Reserve Eligibility Section, Lead: (901) 874-3324
- Enlisted Active and Reserve Eligibility Section, Lead: (901) 874-3217
- Also, here is a great article on this topic from the August 2018 Medical Corps Newsletter:
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.
You don’t need to mail letters anymore:
Electronic Submission of Letters to the Board Now Available
You can’t send letters to the board 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
Happy holidays!
How to Get the FY21 Medical Corps Promotion Lineal List (Even Though You Don’t Really Need It)
The spreadsheet with the FY21 promotion board zones can’t be posted publicly, but you can find it here as long as you have your CAC card (make sure you pick your e-mail certificate):
https://es.med.navy.mil/bumed/m00/m00c/M00C1/SitePages/Home.aspx
It is posted under “Career Management.”
P.S. If you are Medical Corps, you actually don’t need the lineal list to find out when you are in zone. Because the Medical Corps is DOPMA exempt, you can just use the table on page 4 of the Promo Prep to figure out when you are in zone for promotion.
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 