Tango2Bravo said:
For Regular Force Captains, their files will be in competition with the other Captains in their branch who are in the promotion zone. I am grossly simplifying here, but annual merit boards are held in Ottawa for each MOC where a panel reviews the files that are in competition and places them in an order. The board looks at performance and potential, with annual PERs providing the bulk of the information to be considered along with leadership course reports and other important documents/factors.
To clarify the above statement, which is accurate in general but lacking in specifics. The following is regarding the reg force system.
The rating competition commences during the PER season. Each unit and tactical formation has an internal merit board to determine potential rankings for the section 6 review on the PER form. All supervisors normally draft a PER for their subordinates in the Feb timeframe, and then sit unit and tactical formation ranking boards to determine the top potential rankings for that unit and formation. This provides the very important commander's ranking of individuals, which counts a lot during the national merit boards held in Ottawa. The unit supervisors sit and argue the merits of their subordinates' files, and come up with these rankings. This permits the awarding of Immediate Promotion rankings and also allows the Colonel/General to write in section six something like "Captain Bloggins is my top Captain and an infantry officer of unparalleled potential." Thus your first competition is at the unit. If you are lacking there you will probably not get merit reviewed at the brigade or national level and won't get the all-important "Immediate Promotion" recommendation or unit/brigade ranking.
All PERs are sent to Ottawa. Each PER is plugged into a computer, and the computer provides a ranking from top to bottom for all officers who are the promotion zone. This is just counting the dots to provide a score. Normally, the number of promotions for a given year are forecast well in advance of a merit board, and this number is used to determine the number of files that will be reviewed in detail for a given promotion year. I believe the merit board reviews three times the number of people forecast for promotion in a given year. So if your MOS forecast 20 promotions for 2008/09, then the top 60 files for that MOS would be reviewed. The electronic dot counter is the method for providing a list of files for the merit board to review. This is completely objective and only takes into account that year's raw score.
This list of files goes to the merit boards. The merit board goes through each and every file, and reviews the strength of the file in association with the entire competition (based on that list of 60 files). At this stage, the difference between the top and bottom PER may be a matter of just a few points (performance scores are normally nearly equal from top to bottom, and potential scores are usually very close too). Because all files are strong based on raw score, various other factors are used as discriminators. The chairman of the merit board sets the rules for discriminators. He or she is always a senior member of the MOS and knows what needs to be used to cut the wheat from the chaff. Points are awarded for a number of factors including depth of experience (operational and staff), education, language ability, PD, and most importantly leadership ability. Reputation counts, but there is always an outsider with the board whose job it is to say BS when he smells a rat based on "community bias". The PER and the MPRR are used to determine a person's experience and data points, so make sure all info is accurate or you will not get the points you are due at the board (education, OPMEs done, language profile etc - all must be up to date and accurate).
Each file is reviewed and ranked from top to bottom. When ties occur, previous PERs (the last three years) are used to determine tie breakers. The merit list is developed and this turns into a promotion ranking. This ranking is sometimes used for terms of service and career course selection as well.
Sooo.... you are in competition in your regiment first since you must show strength amongst your peers at the unit. Then you compete with your brigade peers for the brigade commander's ranking in section six. Provided you are a top performer, your file then goes to Ottawa and your entire CV will be reviewed to determine you have all the check marks. Provided you have talent and the requisite checks in the box your file will compare favourably using the board discriminator's, which are designed to promote the top drawer folks. The system is as fair and transparent as it can be.
Hope this helps.
BB
