Mess Membership

On the topic of messes, when you consider now at an annual camp there is likely to be at most one or two officers and the rest in the Sgts Mess, would not be more practical if everyone was in the same mess, and if that meant Sgts Mess so be it.

I agree with this, and as long as everyone has the maturity to be in the officers mess, and if there are vacant seats/tables, it wouldn’t hurt anyone to let them in. I presume they wouldn’t disturb anyone, and as long as it’s only for the duration of the course then there’s no issue. I’ve seen cadets use the Officers Mess during some courses, and they were polite and courteous and didn’t cause the slightest issue (albeit they were all cadet SNCOs so a level of maturity was expected of them).

No, regardless of our feelings the mess is the home to many service personnel, how would they feel is RAFAC staff started using their home when they should be elsewhere.
It’s not a simple case of what’s best for us, there is a lot of other people’s feelings to take into consideration I feel

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The whole of JSP 456 is available here - nothing is being hidden:

It does not cover eligibility for mess membership.

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Mess membership is defined in AP3223. VR(T) Officers can become Associate Members only when on duty at that station; social/off duty use status is not permitted. CFC status is not defined in the AP so it would not appear to have been addressed yet.

But we’re all adults so where is the problem?

While there might be a requirement for demarcation in the regular forces , we don’t (or shouldn’t) have those same lines, all effectively being the same.

It seems quite odd that when we are on something like DofE or Wing Camps, we don’t have this separation, yet at camp on a military base and we do.

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In such ‘field’ conditions, centralised messing is usually the rule of the day to avoid overstressing the catering system. Same on operations, used to be the same for Taceval etc.

Except some messes extend the option of becoming full members of the mess to Cadet Officers, there were plenty at RAF Northolt who held VR(T) commissions but were full members of the mess paying monthly subs etc.

It’s not about us all being together which we would be fine with it’s about whether the Sergeants and Warrant Officers who live in the Sergeants Mess would be happy with 6 weeks over summer having Officers wandering about their home. (Or vice versa whether Officers would be happy having CI’s & SNCO’s in their mess for the whole summer).

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Erm, I’m a bit lost here. Aren’t we meant to be about cadets, ie those kids who wear brassards?

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I’m a little lost as to what your point is?

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Indeed - I think that the AP specifies an entitlement, whilst individual messes will be free to add to that.

“How dare Staff get something out of the organisation!” Is the point they were making, I assume they are from HQAC :roll_eyes:

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There is no such thing as ‘entitlement’ - mess membership is a privilege of the Commanding Officer (as more than one VGS unit has found out in the past).

Are you ex 683 CWC? You never did answer…

Am i the only one struggling to see what the point of this?..on a side note in the autumn im driving from Bournemouth to Edinburgh…hypothetically is there any thing stopping me booking into a mess for a nights kip on the way up instead of booking into a hotel?

Depends on the purpose of your drive, if it’s cadet related you could assuming their is space.

Nope he’s not 863, but I suspect he is an Ex CivCom Chair who was booted out for misconduct, and has beef with the ATC, his former Wing & Region.

Seems a keyboard warrior, barrack room lawyer type to me, looking at his history he clearly has issues with the uniformed side of things.

I don’t know how RAFAC membership of a mess works but as a regular, I have stayed at Cosford prior to an early morning flight form Birmingham Airport and paid the “social” rate as opposed to the duty rate.

Phone them up and ask.