A taste of things to come. National Hospitality Services Manager Christian Roy (center) and Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class David Gingras, National Hospitality Services Officer experience customer service first hand at the Navy Officers’ Mess in Ottawa.

Steeped in a rich military tradition, messes have been used to foster morale and promote camaraderie throughout the history of the Canadian Forces (CF). To ensure messes continue to be important and highly patronized, the CFPSA’s Personnel Support Programs Division (PSP) has stepped up its efforts to reinvigorate this proud CF institution and has hired two hospitality experts manage initiative.

In October, Christian Roy, the former program director for Switzerland-based International College of Hospitality Administration was appointed the National Hospitality Service Manager. And in August, Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class David Gingras, with 21 years’ experience providing hospitality services for the CF and who currently manages a web site for CF hospitality specialists, was named the National Hospitality Services Officer.

Both Roy and Gingras admit they have their work cut out for them. With few exceptions, mess attendance is down and CF members are spending less.

“Messes used to be the ‘guys’ place to hang out, drink and share stories,” says Roy, who also was a member of the CF for 14 years. “But CF members today are a diverse group. Some would rather go to clubs and bars in the city because they are not as regimented and others would rather spend more time with their families and take part in recreational activities.”

Gingras adds, “For messes to thrive, they’ve got to become more flexible and adapt to the social trends that are taking place within the CF community. As part of our role in providing guidance to local mess management, we will encourage managers to get out in the community and do some basic market research and learn first-hand what their customers want in terms of product, service and entertainment.”

To help them better serve mess clientele, Hospitality Services is getting added support from the CF. In 2000, the CF together with the CFPSA held a Messes Beyond 2000 seminar attended by representatives from environments’ ranks and components of the military to explore new opportunities. It was here where a CF mess study stating that messes contribute to team building, morale and discipline; that all senior staff officers would enforce and promote the use of messes; and that all CF members would continue to belong to a mess according to rank was adopted as the foundation for the new Messes Beyond 2000 initiative.

As well, PSP Hospitality Services also hopes to take advantage of new technologies to better serve their customers and help streamline operations. Both Roy and Gingras are now involved in assessing various software applications relevant to mess operations.

“It’s our goal that every mess manager and clerk will have an efficient and uniform accounting system,” says Roy. “The idea is that everybody at the base level will be operating with the same software and, in essence, speaking the same language.”

No exact dates exist yet on when the new software will be available, but according to Roy it’s now under development and will be available to mess management in the next year.