Take letters of interest for a rank

A letter of interest is how a member who's already in a department puts themselves forward for a rank, like Sergeant or a command position. They write a short letter on the community website, and your command team reads it in the control panel.

Letters are different from application forms. Applications bring new people into a department. Letters are only for people who are already in it, and accepting one doesn't change anyone's rank: you promote them separately when you're ready.

Before you start#

• The Department Panel module needs to be installed.
• To open a rank for letters, you need the Edit departments, ranks, divisions and certifications permission.
• To read and decide letters, you need the Review letters of interest permission. If it's limited to one department, you'll only see letters for that department, and only from people ranked below you.

Open a rank for letters#

1. Click Departments & ranks in the left sidebar and open the department.

2. Click Edit next to the rank.

3. Scroll down to Public roster.

4. Under Open positions, pick Letter of interest, for people already in the department.

5. Click Save roster settings.

   

You'll see Saved roster settings for Sergeant. To stop taking letters, set Open positions back to Nothing, just show them as open.

Where members write their letter#

Members in the department can write a letter from two places on your community website:

• My departments, in their member area. The department's card lists the ranks under Taking letters of interest for.
• Your public roster, where open positions on the rank show a Letter of interest link. This shows to signed-in members of the department.

Only members who are Active, In training or on Leave of absence in the department can write one. The letter has to be between 30 and 5,000 characters. The page also shows them what's Needed for the rank, based on its promotion requirements.

Letters are only for ranks above the one they hold, so a Sergeant can't write one for Officer. A member can only have one letter in review for each rank. They can withdraw it until it's been reviewed.

Review letters#

1. In the left sidebar, under Department Panel, click Letters of interest.
2. The Pending tab shows letters waiting for review, oldest first. Decided shows ones you've accepted or declined.
3. If you review more than one department, use the list at the top to show one.

Each letter shows who wrote it, their department and current rank, the rank they're asking for, when they sent it and the letter itself. Click their name to open their profile and check their history before you decide.

Accept or decline a letter#

1. Optionally type a note in Note to them (optional). They'll see it.
2. Click Accept or Decline.

The member is told the outcome along with your note, on the site, by email or by Discord DM, depending on the Letters of interest notification setting they've chosen.

Promote them after accepting#

Accepting a letter doesn't promote anyone. It tells the member you've chosen them, so you can promote them when the time is right.

1. On the Decided tab, find the accepted letter.
2. Click Change rank. It opens their profile at the right department.
3. Click Manage, pick the rank under Rank, and click Change rank.

The Change rank button only shows if you have the Add members, change ranks, callsigns and status permission over them, and they're not already at that rank. The rank's promotion requirements still apply. See Promote, demote or transfer a member.

Something not working?#

"That letter has already been reviewed." Someone else accepted or declined it first, or the member withdrew it.

"They're no longer active in LSPD." The member has been suspended, set to inactive or has left since they wrote the letter, so it can't be accepted. You can still decline it.

Members say they can't find where to write a letter. Check the rank's Open positions is set to Letter of interest, for people already in the department. People who aren't in the department, or are suspended or inactive there, can't write one.

I'm not told when a new letter comes in. Everyone who can review a letter gets a Letters to review notification when it's sent. Check you haven't turned it off in your notification settings, and that you're ranked above the person who wrote it if your access is limited to one department. The Pending count on the Letters of interest page always shows what's waiting. If you post logs to Discord, you can send letters of interest to a channel, see Post logs to Discord channels.