Hey all,

As a friend of mine was keen to point out (thanks Donitz), the Brotherhood chain of command for medals and promotions has been somewhat circumvented over time. People submit promotion and medal recommendations on their own authority and they go directly to me. They oftentimes bypass their own leaders or do not adequately go through a discussion with them.

Traditionally, it has been the responsibility of the Clan leadership to review all promotions and medals before they reach me. It works like this: if a Battleteam leader wants to promote someone, they submit a request to their Quaestor and Aedile who review it. If they disagree, they tell the BTL and the promotion ends there. They can discuss the promotion and figure out what needs to be done. It promotes communication and sound leadership. If they agree, they pass it on the Consul and the ProConsul. If they disagree, the process ends and another discussion occurs; if they agree, it gets passed up to me. Theoretically, by the time it gets to me, the recommendation should have been adequately reviewed and all levels of leadership should've had a chance to look at it.

Currently, while some people still do follow the chain of command, there are many others who simply act on their own (albeit granted) authority and submit requests directly to me. All requests go directly to me and do not necessarily get reviewed by the appropriate Clan leaders. This is inefficient - it means that I personally have to wade through every recommendation and determine it's validity. Not only does this overburden me (oh and it definitely does), it's also not fair since the Clan leadership is more likely to know about someone's activity within their Clan than I am. It is true that the Codex says certain members have the right to promote someone to a certain rank - but they have that authority subject to the approval of their superiors up to and including myself. Same idea with the medals.

I prefer to be able to trust people, however. We appoint Consuls for a reason; and they appoint their House leadership for a reason. And it's just way too much to ask me to personally review every single medal and promotion in its entirety. So therefore, to that end, I am reminding you all of how the Chain of Command works and know that I will be enforcing it.

When requesting promotions or medals, please submit them up the chain of command. Send them to your superior officer. They'll send them to their superior officer. Once you get approval from whoever is at the necessary level of leadership, submit the recommendation to me through the database. I will be checking on this. Failure to check with someone will result in an automatic denial and a smackdown from me. In the future, there will be other, easier ways of enforcing this.

I realize there will still be some questions about 'no-brainer' promotions: like the very lowest level promotions. Generally speaking, for promotions from APP to GRD, approval by House leadership should be adequate and can be directly submitted to me via the database - unless your Consul wants you to do otherwise. Anything higher should go to your Consul and then to me. Any and all merit medals should go up the entire chain of command before they get to me. This doesn't apply to Crescents and Clusters. People awarding medals that fall outside the standard chain of command (like Tribunes) should just submit them like normal.

On an additional note, you have plenty of time for the requests to travel up the Chain of Command. I will not be processing medium to major awards or promotions more than once a week. Processing things fast was a good idea for a while but processing things carefully is an even better one. Your lower level promotions, Crescents, clusters and other awards outside the normal chain of command will still be processed as they are now.

As always, questions or comments are welcome.

Dark Side Adept Syn Kaek
Master At Arms