| Document Release Information | |
| Article Number | J-005 |
| Version | 1.0 |
| Effective | |
| Last Modified | 01FEB25 |
| Approving Authority | Joint Forces Commander |
| For Video Game Use Only (FVFUO) | |
The Officer Review Board (ORB) is the formal process in the Virtual Joint Forces Command to promote officers into leadership billets. The list of positions that require an ORB are listed below, other billets not listed only require the unit's Commander's approval. Individuals may apply for any open position within their Combat Unit to attend the ORB, for billets at the same level or below will only require a transfer. See J-002 for more on transfers.
Individuals who are interested will send the Convening Officer a message over discord to indicate their intent to attend.
These billets require an ORB:
| USAF | USN / USMC | USA |
|---|---|---|
| Deputy Flight Commander | ||
| Flight Commander | ||
| Deputy Squadron Commander | Company Executive Officer | |
| Deputy Group Commander | - | Battalion Executive Officer |
| Deputy Wing Commander | Brigade Executive Officer | |
| Deputy NAF Commander | Chief of Staff | Division Executive Officer |
The ORB will consist of 5 board members at or above the open billet's rank/position, one of which will be the convening officer (highest ranking) and 4 other members, of which should be drawn from the open billet's service but if required can be drawn from across the command. The Convening Officer is responsible for building a roster of both the applicants and board members.
At announcement of the ORB, the opening must contain the following items:
To run an ORB there must be at least 2 applicants (though the convening officer may require more). If there are less than 2 applicants the convening officer can request a waiver to the ORB process to the Combat Unit commander to recommend promotion of the applicant meritoriously.
At the ORB each member of the board will ask 2 questions in whichever order the convening commander suggests. The questions for the board members must be selected from the vJFC question bank associated with the billet of interest. The convening officer will review the following steps and requirements for board members including their requirement to be unbiased and fairly grade each applicant the same. The convening officer will then take attendance of all applicants in attendance, and inform the applicants that once the ORB begins they should be muted in the waiting room and not talk/message with other applicants. Once this instruction is given, any applicants late to the ORB will not be admitted (Exception: if the applicant has messaged in advance and received permission from the convening officer to attend at a specific time, which must be announced at the time of attendance to all applicants, details not required).
To start the board the convening officer will welcome the applicants in a VC on the discord, then escort one applicant one at a time into the channel with the board members. The convening officer is responsible for emceeing the whole board, and will call on board members to ask questions and pause for an appropriate time following an answer to allow board members to record a grade. Each board member will then privately grade each answer given by the applicant on a scale of 1 - 10 (with 10 as the highest). After the questions and grades the applicant will be escorted by the convening officer back to the VC and bring a new applicant to the review room. Each applicant will be asked the same 10 questions in the same order.
Once all applicants have been returned to the original VC the convening officer will gather all the scores from each board member, tally the results (averaged for each student by grader to get a score out of 100 for each applicant, then apply any additional points to the total as described below in Section 3), and announce to the board members the applicant and score for each applicant from lowest to highest. At no time prior to this step may board members share their grades either individually or in totality. Applicants will be disqualified from eligibility to receive an offer from the ORB if they, on average, score less than a 5 out of 10 on any one question.
Immediately following the grade announcements, any member on the board may announce a veto to the results. If a board member announces a veto, stop and refer to section 4. Veto to proceed. Should no vetoes be heard, the board will bring all the applicants in and announce the applicant who scored the highest. The convening officer will then submit the results to the Joint Staff with recommendation for promotion. At the time of announcement with a recommendation for promotion the applicant is immediately the position's interim and assumes all duties and responsibilities and if they require a rank promotion for the min rank requirement they are that rank "select" and assume all expectations and benefits of the rank.
Joint Staff will confirm a recommendation for promotion and send the necessary information to the J1 for formal processing and assignment of roles, once completed the titles interim and select are dropped.
Additional points can be earned by applicants based on highest assigned billet, previous meritorious promotions, and secondary billets. The following is a breakdown for points that should be calculated for each applicant prior to the start of each ORB and added to the final scores.
| Points | USAF | USN / USMC | USA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Section Lead | ||
| 10 | Deputy Flight Commander | ||
| 15 | Flight Commander | ||
| 20 | Deputy Squadron Commander | Company Executive Officer | |
| 25 | Squadron Commander | Company Commander | |
| 30 | Deputy Group Commander | - | Battalion Executive Officer |
| 35 | Group Commander | - | Battalion Commander |
| 40 | Deputy Wing Commander | Brigade Executive Officer | |
| 45 | Wing Commander | Brigade Commander | |
| 50 | Deputy NAF Commander | Chief of Staff | Division Executive Officer |
For each previous meritorious promotion received an applicant will be awarded 5 points.
For each secondary billet held an applicant will be awarded 1 point per month they actively hold the billet.
JFDC Note: The values of the secondary billets’ points will be re-evaluated every 6 months and may be subject to change as the command continues to grow and the role/responsibilities for secondaries are finalized.
Should a veto be announced by any of the board members, the ORB will immediately stop and pause any further proceedings and no further comments or discussions will take place until the convening officer first reviews with all board members the following items and then executes them.
The Joint Staff will then review all materials and make a determination of the ORB, and if deemed appropriate promote an applicant or inform the convening officer of a requirement to void the results and restart the process for a new ORB. Repeat ORBs may not contain more than 3 of the same board members.
For board members the veto is a vote of no confidence in the process by which the ORB was conducted or the behavior/intent by a sitting board member. Veto's can be made by any member of the board including the convening officer.
An example of a situation where a veto should be called is when a board member suspects another member is biased in their scoring to favor/hinder one applicant.