has the same force and effect as an instruction. A notice usually remains in effect for less than 6 months, but is not permitted to remain in effect for longer than one year. Reports and procedures covered in a notice are considered canceled when the notice is canceled, unless requirements have been issued in another document.
Bulletin (Applies only to Marine Corps issuances)
A directive having the same force and effect as an order and used to publish material that is either primarily informative or otherwise directive in nature, but is not of continuing authority or reference value. A bulletin includes a self-cancellation date.
Joint Directive
A directive issued jointly by one authority, in conjunction with one or more other authorities.
Letter-Type Directive
An instruction or notice prepared in a format similar to that of the naval letter.
Message-Type Directive
A directive transmitted via the Naval Communication System.
Publication-Type Directive
An instruction or notice whose content is best suited to a publication format; i.e., parts, chapters, sections, differing from a manual or publication only by the method of promulgation and identification.
Change Transmittal
The medium used to transmit changes to an instruction, or under extenuating circumstances, a notice. Each transmittal describes the nature of the changes it transmits, and gives directions for making them. In the Marine Corps, comparable changes are to orders and bulletins.
CHANGES TO DIRECTIVES
Existing directives are usually changed or modified by the following methods:
PAGE CHANGE—An addition or replacement page for an instruction or notice, transmitted under cover of a change transmittal for insertion by the recipients. It is generally faster and more economical; it provides neater, more legible copy; and it decreases the chance of errors.
PEN CHANGE—A change to an instruction or notice, prescribed in a change transmittal, to be made by the addressee. Directions state precisely where the change occurs, i.e., page, paragraph, and line number, and any other pertinent information. OPNAV prohibits this type of change except in very unusual circumstances.
REVISION—Instructions are revised periodically as the need arises. The initial Standard Subject Identification Code (SSIC) used to identify the instruction will remain the same and only the subdivision alpha/numeric characters that follow the SSIC will change to identify the revision. The addition of the numeric character following SSIC shows how many instructions have been promulgated that bear the same SSIC; e.g., NAVMEDCOMINST 6222.3 indicates that this is the third instruction issued by COMNAVMEDCOM that bears the SSIC 6222. An alphabetical character is added to the identification number to indicate the revision of that particular instruction; e.g., NAVMEDCOMINST 6222.3B indicates that it is the second major revision of that instruction, while a “C” would indicate the third major revision and so on. It is important to note that the alphabetical charactem “I” and “O” are never used to indicate major revisions in order to avoid confusion with the numerical characters one and zero.
SUPPLEMENT—A medium formerly used to add information to an existing instruction. It is now prohibited except where necessary to change a joint interservice instruction when the basic instruction cannot readily be changed.
All changes and revisions should be carefully made, according to their accompanying instructions, immediately upon receipt. A manual directive or publication in which the required changes have not been made is of no value to the organization—in fact it can be detrimental, since outdated information is erroneous and misleading.
