Promotion Policy

Promotions for Characters within TFE are on a time served basis, i.e. the time it takes to go from one rank to the next, called "time in grade" or TIG. A Character's promotion is not guaranteed once minimum time in grade is met, as each SIM's Commanding Officer (CO) will take items as maturity, participation, and consistency into account in making their decision to promote an individual.

• Junior Enlisted: Rct, CM
• Senior Enlisted: PO3, PO2, PO1
• Noncommissioned Officers (NCO): CPO, SCPO, MCPO
  
  
• Warrant Officers: WO, CWO, SCWO, MCWO - Highly trained and educated in a particular field of expertise. They occupy a "middle ground" between enlisted and officers, i.e. called "Sir" but not saluted. Available to new players with previous SIM experience, or to players with at least 6 months good standing within TFE, pending approval of the SIM's CO.
  
  
• Junior Officers: Ens, Ltjg, Lt
• Senior Officers: LtCmdr, Cmdr, Capt
• Flag Officers: FCapt, Commo, RAdm, VAdm, Adm

Enlisted Ranks INSIGNIA TITLE PROMOTION REQUIREMENTS Crewman (CM) Minimum 5 weeks Time In Grade (TIG) Petty Officer Third Class (PO3) Minimum 7 weeks TIG Petty Officer Second Class (PO2) Minimum 14 weeks TIG Petty Officer First Class (PO1) Minimum 22 weeks TIG Chief Petty Officer (CPO) Minimum 24 weeks TIG; May become WO1 Senior Chief Petty Officer (SCPO) Minimum 28 weeks TIG; May become WO1 Master Chief Petty Officer (MCPO) Commissioned as a Junior Officer; May become WO2

Warrant Officer Ranks INSIGNIA TITLE PROMOTION REQUIREMENTS Warrant Officer (WO1) Minimum 9 months Time In Grade (TIG) Chief Warrant Officer (WO2) Minimum 10 months TIG Senior Chief Warrant Officer (WO3) Minimum 12 months TIG Master Chief Warrant Officer (WO4) Commissioned as a Junior Officer

Officer Ranks INSIGNIA TITLE PROMOTION REQUIREMENTS Ensign (Ens) Minimum 8 weeks Time In Grade (TIG) Lieutenant, junior grade (Ltjg) Minimum 16 weeks TIG Lieutenant (Lt) Minimum 24 weeks TIG Lieutenant Commander (LtCmdr) Minimum 32 weeks Time In Grade (TIG) Commander (Cmdr) Minimum 9 months TIG, Command of a fully approved SIM Captain (Capt) Highest attainable rank on a TFE SIM

Flag Officer Ranks INSIGNIA TITLE PROMOTION REQUIREMENTS Fleet Captain (FCapt) Provisional rank for temporary Fleet-level appointments Commodore (Commo) Starting rank for all Fleet-level appointments Rear Admiral (RAdm) Max rank for third tier Fleet-level appointments (Recruiting Commander, EngCorps Commander, Academy Commandant) Vice Admiral (VAdm) Max rank for second tier Fleet-level appointments (Fleet Ops Commander, Fleet Services Commander, Fleet Advisor) Admiral (Adm) Reserved for the Starfleet Commander

New Character Rank Assignment

• All new characters will start at a minimum rank of Ensign for Commissioned Officers or Crewman for Enlisted. The rank of Cadet (for Officers, and please note that Cadet's have the authority equal to the lowest Enlisted Rank of Crewman only) and Crewman Apprentice (for Enlisted) is issued to new members of the First Era who have no role-playing experience.
• A rank up to Lieutenant Junior Grade (for Officers) and PO3/PO2 (for Enlisted) may be granted to new members who have role-playing experience. However, this is priviledge subject to the discretion of the Commanding Officer of the respective SIM.
• Characters from other SIM Groups may request a rank transfer from their previous group but this is subject at the discretion of the Fleet Commander, and Academy completion is still required when requesting a rank transfer.
• Characters from within TFE may transfer from to any other TFE SIM they've been accepted to without reduction in rank.

Existing Character Rank Exceptions

• The rank of Captain is tied directly to Command of a fully approved SIM. When a new CO is assigned to a SIM who does not have the rank of Captain, a field promotion to Commander will take effect (see below).
• No officer aboard a SIM will be promoted to the same or higher rank than the SIM CO's rank. That means if a SIM were led by a Commander, all officers of Lieutenant Commander rank would not be eligible for promotion until the CO was promoted to Captain.
• There will only be one Commander ranked officer within a department.
• The rank of Commo and above is reserved for those officers who hold permanent fleet-level positions.

Field Promotions

Even though Starfleet is not a military institution, we do use military-like service ranks and a hierarchical command structure. There is a long standing tradition in most military services that when special need arises, a senior officer may field promote personnel under their command, as necessary. The senior officer would exercise this privilege only when a critical position needed to be filled and no one of sufficient rank was available and when the duties of that position were impossible to fulfil without a set degree of rank.

• A COB may not be field promoted higher than Chief Petty Officer.
• An XO may not be field promoted higher than Lieutenant Commander.
• A CO may not be field promoted higher than Commander (called "Acting Captain").

The CO needs to inform Fleet Operations, and ensure that any uncompleted time in grade (TIG) for the current and all skipped ranks are added to the TIG for the next promotion. The character in question has six weeks to complete the Command Officer's Training Course (if not already completed). COs are to ensure that the appropriate archives receive copy of the field promotion (CC the email that was sent to inform Fleet Ops to the TFE-logistics list). Additional considerations are as follows:

• Rank Field Promotion for the CO is subject to approval by the Starfleet Commander.
• Rank Field Promotion is for the COB or the XO is subject to the approval of the Starfleet Commander or Fleet Operations Commander.
• All Rank Field Promotions are linked to the position. If the SIMmer relinquishes the position, the field promotion is cancelled, although the time served counts towards the next standard promotion.