Here are a few comments / issues that you should push to RS's to enhance the overall effectiveness of a specific fitness report (for you as well as your Marines) in regards to competitiveness with an Active Duty SNCO Selection Board:

​

1.  Board members are looking for comments that they can, in a sense, copy and paste into their "Briefing Guide" which makes their job easier.  The main reason I stress this is b/c we have seen MULTIPLE reports from across the Marine Corps lately that don't give anything "Tangible" that the board members can wrap their hands around to enhance the overall Marines brief.  The copy and paste function on the "Digital Boardroom" is so simple that it cuts the preparation time down for them to look for other good (or bad) things to brief.  Remember: They are looking for anything within a Marines specific record IOT get that Marine selected, but it depends on what is given to the Board members which will help make that happen.

 

2.  One of the BIGGEST type of comments (based off of the PDF file attached) is the PROMOTION RECOMMENDATION.  RO's are the only ones REQUIRED to give a Promotion Recommendation, but Board Members want to see the RS do so as well, which helps them break that Marine away from his peers, or not.  Fortunately most RS's across the Marine Corps are doing so.  A standard "Promote with Peers" type comment is looked at by most Board Members as, "If the majority of your peers are being passed, then so should you".  As you already know, regardless of MOS across the Marine Corps, the majority of all Marines' peers are being passed, due to MOS's being so competitive.  You want Above and Beyond Promotion Recommendations (if you are performing to that level) to show those Board Members that there is no question whether or not you should be selected.  A simple "Enthusiastic" recommendation will suffice to meet that criteria, but saying "This Marine deserves to be promoted ahead of his peers now" or any other imaginative variation sends a lot more dramatic effect to get the point across.  A lot of times RS's and RO's write GREAT comments breaking this guy out as a "water walker" but then say "Promote with peers", which now you can see is almost a contradiction in terms.

​

3.  For the 1stSgt / SgtMaj route, you NEED to have tangible numbers of things that will enhance your overall brief, again since the path is SOO competitive.  (The last FY10 E8/E9 board members stressed in our Board Debrief that they looked at that HEAVILY for those GySgt's going for 1stSgt).  How many Marines were you in charge of, how many Marines do you effect in your unit (if not directly under you), how much of a budget within the CMR are you in charge of (Great for GySgt's), etc... Percentages and statistics are great too, especially if you dramatically enhanced the overall effectiveness of your unit during that timeframe.

​

4.  For those GySgt's going for 1stSgt, a big issue is the "Dual Eligible Quandary".  They mold their reports (comments etc..) for the administrative areas and neglect MOS credibility and then they don't get selected for 1stSgt, and now they aren't even competitive for MSgt.  It happens a lot more than you would think. 

​

5.  For you 1stSgt's going towards SgtMaj, the RS and RO's have to consider where the 1stSgt is in there profiles.  The Avg Joes "Typically" aren't getting selected, even though the selection rate for SgtMaj was 58% last year, so it was a little easier to get selected to SgtMaj than it was for a GySgt to get selected for 1stSgt with a 19% selection rate.  However, those of you 1stSgt's going towards SgtMaj typically have a lot better records so the competition is tighter in that respect.

​