MAC vs Service Messes
A little off topic, but.....
In my last job I was required to spend a lot of time on the road, attending meetings at places such as MOD, HQSTC and visiting most of our bases including specialist or Joint Service units such as Chicksands and Cosford.
This kind of lifestyle rapidly highlighted those areas of success or failure in the area of Messing and accomodation. What was abundantly clear is that those Messes which retain their "Service" status were better by a country mile than the MAC/Civilian run counterparts. (i.e. the Mess Manager is a WO/FS and the Mess is run in the traditional manner).
My experience of the MACs is that they provide a degraded service in almost all areas; getting things fixed i.e. lack of hot water in an entire wing, was almost impossible; there seems to be little accountability for poor service and a predominance of Mess Managers who treat the place like a Trusthouse Forte with little regard for the lifestyle of the 'customers'. After three days of no hot water at Cosford, I threatened to move into a hotel and send the bill to the Mess Manager; miraculously the hot water came on that evening!
There is also a poor attitude prevalent on bases with Messes that are MAC-run in that anything that is not directly stipulated in the contract is too difficult/costly/time-consuming to change; things change over time and we have learnt the hard way that we never foresee every eventuality when writing contracts! For example. the RAF personnel at a Joint Service unit wanted to host a Battle Of Britain function last year; this was prevented because it wasn't part of the agreed 8 'official' functions allowed each year, and the (Civilian) Mess Manager refused to consider adding a ninth!
On the subject of PAYD - great concept but unfortunately I believe that this will be another erosion of our traditions and lifestyle. This is by no means a snobbish attitude; from one who has been both a JR and an officer, in both incarnations I would rather have dined with my peers!
SBG