Promotion Selection Board Rules of Engagement
From: Chief of Navy Personnel
Once notified you are going to be a selection board member
Your duty to help maintain the independence and integrity of
the selection board process begins the moment you are officially notified by Commander, Navy Personnel Command that you will be sitting on a promotion selection board.
Except for necessary administrative purposes, e.g., to arrange TAD travel, do not tell anyone in your command or elsewhere that you are going to be sitting on a particular selection board.
Do not visit or communicate in any way, even based on a personal relationship, with detailers, placement officers, or community managers. If you have an emergent circumstance, e.g. you are in the PCS orders negotiating process, you must go through your board sponsor to coordinate with detailers, placement officers, or community managers.
Do not attempt to get information about, or discuss any officer who might be considered by the promotion board you will sit. This includes officers above, in, and below the zone.
Other than staff from Commander, Navy Personnel Command, if anyone attempts to discuss or communicate with you in any way, e.g., by phone call, in person, or by e-mail about your prospective participation in the board, let the staff at Navy Personnel Command know immediately. If in doubt call them. Your dealings with the staff must be limited to administrative matters related to your board service.
While at the board
Only SECNAV may speak to board members in person about substantive matters once the board convenes. Designated support staff is authorized to speak to you about administrative matters.
All substantive communications to the board must be in writing, be given to each member, and made a part of the board’s record.
Limit all substantive conversations about the board to the officially designated board spaces, i.e. the boardroom and tank. Do not discuss substantive board matters with anyone, anywhere else, e.g., in heads, the lunchroom, in the van en route to and from the board spaces, or at the BOQ. All substantive discussions must take place in the boardroom or tank. A recorder must be present for all tank deliberations.
No lists, notes, or writing you compile during the board may leave the selection board area. At the end of the board all lists, notes, and other writings must be left in the deliberation room burn bags.
You may only consider official records and written or published material furnished to you by the selection board administrative staff.
You may not consider any written or published material not provided to you by the selection board administrative staff.
You may not discuss anything adverse about an officer that is not in the official record provided to you at the board.
After the board
Your duty to maintain the confidentiality of the board’s proceedings, deliberations, and results is required by law. Do not disclose anything about your board’s proceedings, deliberations, or results to anyone unless specifically authorized by competent authority.
You may not counsel or advise an officer who failed to select for promotion at your board as to why he or she may not have been picked. Direct the officer to contact his or her detailer or community manager for counseling.
Do not disclose the proceedings, deliberations, vote of the board, including how you voted, or names of officers selected or not selected for promotion to anyone unless authorized by competent authority to do so.
At all times
If you believe that the integrity of the board process or board proceedings has been affected by improper influence from an outside source, misconduct by a board member, or for any other reason, or believe someone is exerting or attempting to exert inappropriate influence over you or the board proceedings, report it to Commander, Navy Personnel Command staff immediately. When in doubt, report.
