7.5 Evaluation Boards & Central Selection

Why the Board Matters

AFH 1 opens with the stake: "The promotion evaluation board is very important because it accounts for over half the total promotion score points." Understanding how members are selected, how the process works, and what board members consider "can provide valuable insight into what is required to get promoted."

Selection of Board Members

The number of promotion-eligible personnel, identified by major commands and Air Force Specialty Codes, determines the career field backgrounds of board members. Board members are then divided into panels.

Before evaluating records, board members are briefed and sworn to complete the board's task impartially, and they participate in an extensive trial-run process to ensure scoring consistency before evaluating any "live" records.

The 1 Colonel + 2 Chiefs panel and the General Officer president are two of the most reliably tested facts in Chapter 9.

What the Board Considers

AFH 1 lists seven areas: performance, education, breadth of experience, job responsibility, professional competence, specific achievements, and leadership.

It then explains why scores move between years — new panel members with different thought processes, changed or improved records, and a pool of new eligibles — and concludes that board scores do vary, often significantly, from one board to the next.

Two principles follow, and both matter for how Airmen should interpret their results:

1. While scores vary between panels, all records within a Chief Enlisted Manager (CEM) Code or AFSC are evaluated under the same standard.
2. The important aspect of a final board score is how one eligible compares to his or her peers in the final order of merit — not the absolute number.

The firewall provisions are equally testable: board members do not have access to the weighted scores of individuals competing for promotion, and when board members disband, they do not know who was selected.

The Trial Run

Board members are given two selected sets of records to score as a practice exercise using secret ballots before actual scoring begins. The trial run helps establish a scoring standard that can be applied consistently across the board, and AFH 1 notes that each board arrives at their own scoring standard. Everyone competing in a CEM Code or AFSC is then looked at under that same standard.

Scoring — the Arithmetic

This is the most numerically precise passage in Chapter 9.

Worked example. Three panel members score a record 8.0, 8.5, and 8.0. The composite is 24.5; multiplied by 15, the board score is 367.5.

The mechanics of an honest ballot. The same panel evaluates all eligibles competing in a CEM Code or AFSC. Using a secret ballot, panel members score the record individually with no discussion. Records are given to each panel member, and after scoring, the ballots go directly to a recorder — ensuring each panel member has scored each record independently.

Split-Vote Resolution

A record scored with a difference of more than one point between any of the panel members — AFH 1's example is 8.5, 8.0, and 7.0 — is termed a split vote and is returned to the panel for resolution.

What happens next:

1. All panel members may discuss the record openly and state why they scored it as they did
2. Only those panel members directly involved in the split may change their scores
3. If panel members cannot come to an agreement, they give the record to the board president for resolution

AFH 1 states the purpose in a sentence that is itself a likely item: this process "ensures consistency of scoring and eliminates the possibility that one panel member will have a major impact (positive or negative) on an individual's board score."

Check AFH 1's example against the rule: 8.5 and 7.0 differ by 1.5 points, which is more than one point, so it is a split. A spread of exactly 1.0 — say 8.5, 8.0, 7.5 — is not a split vote, because the trigger is more than one point.

Post-Board Processing

After the board finishes, the weighted factor scores are combined with the board scores. AFH 1 calls this a completely electronic operation that:

1. Builds an order of merit listing by total score within each CEM Code or AFSC
2. Applies the overall promotion quota to each list
3. Transmits the data to the military personnel section after selection results are approved

Promotion Score Notices

Score notices are "a means to give Airmen a report of their relative standing in the promotion consideration process" and should never be provided to or used by anyone other than the individual and his or her commander.

The access rules are strict and specific:

• An Airman's scores cannot be disclosed without the Airman's written consent
• Commander's support staffs, first sergeants, supervisors, and the like are not authorized access to promotion scores
• The commander has the specific duty to notify Airmen of promotion selection or non-selection results and may need to review score notices to determine status
• Commanders must restrict their use of the scores to notification and advisory counseling on behalf of the Airman and must not allow further dissemination

The first sergeant exclusion is the fact most candidates get wrong, because first sergeants are involved in nearly everything else affecting enlisted Airmen.

Individuals may retrieve a copy of their score notice on the virtual military personnel flight after the initial promotion selection for the current cycle, and may compare their scores with promotion statistics available in the military personnel flight, posted on vMPF, or published through the Air Force Personnel Center.