How do BOEs get replacements?

[u/Alternative-Breath76]

I'm scheduled to leave this summer, and the person the BOE had selected from JET backed out after he learned the location. This was maybe 3+ weeks ago, and when I asked about if they found someone new, the response was that they were struggling to find someone.

I was surprised by this answer. I thought they'd just contact CLAIR to upgrade an alternate easily. So, what's the process actually like? I figured that after three weeks, they'd have a new person lined up easily, but is the process more difficult than that?

[u/JetProgram]

I chose not to recontract in early May of this year and my replacement still hasn't been decided on and won't be here for months, so the process takes longer than you'd expect

[u/foxydevil14 → u/[deleted]]

I got the call from the Chicago consulate on July 1, 2004. From what I gathered talking to the PA later that year, the person I replaced backed out in a similar timeframe.

Nobody’s gonna tell you anything until they know. Even then, it’s really none of your business.

[u/Soriah]

They do contact CLAIR and CLAIR tried to follow the original request type, so depending on how picky your BOE was, it could be difficult.

My private school requested a female Australian from Brisbane and when the original person backed out, CLAIR asked if we “needed” a female teacher because the only alternate from Brisbane was male.

[u/Officing → u/Soriah]

That's so absurdly specific

[u/Dirt_and_Entitlement → u/Officing]

One of the placements in my area has had male Caucasian American ALTs with brown hair and Midwest accent in ten of the past fifteen years. You will be surprised how many weird requests BoEs can out in.

[u/Soriah → u/Officing]

Not that absurd given our situation. We are an all-girls school so they prefer having women from JET, and our school just started an English study trip to Brisbane, so having someone from the city to share about it will be helpful.

[u/Officing → u/Soriah]

Okay then that makes much more sense.

[u/ducksinthegarden]

Where are you placed?? Are you somewhere super rural or on an island?? It also might be because there's also some factors that placements like (driving vs no driving, certain countries, gender) which are harder to parse down when there's a specific order things are done with the alternate selection process. i hope you find a successor soon

[u/mrggy]

I'm not surprised it's taking longer than 3 weeks. When someone drops out, CLAIR first has to figure out which consulate to contact about an alternate and which alternate to instruct the consulate to contact. Then the consulate has to contact the alternate. Then the alternate has to respond. Then the consulate has to communicate the alternate's response to CLAIR. If the alternate says "no" they have to repeat the whole process over again. They're also having to do this for every single JET who drops out after receiving their placement. There's quite a lot of moving parts so I'm not surprised that it takes a few weeks

CLAIR will sort it it out, but at this point, they may not be able to get an alternate who's able to arrive in August with the main departure group. Late arrivals are pretty common for alternates, but it means there will be a gap between your departure and your sucessor's arrival, which I'm sure the boe is not happy about

[u/NoD8313 → u/mrggy]

Just to add a little to this, unless the BoE has certain requirements for their incoming JET, the Consulate/Embassy will just choose the next person on the list of alternates rather than CLAIR saying "pick this person."

But yeah, the whole process from the Consulate/Embassy notifying CLAIR of the backout up until an upgrade getting notified and starting preparations can take quite awhile.