Originally Posted by the_guru

Interesting conundrum. The days of Canteen Cowboy are well over. The NAAFI is now afully functioning profit grabbing organisation. From that POV they have no mre right to ask for security than the Pizza place or O'Gikes. The COC should tell them to stick it up their arrse. There are Security Organisations in JHQ manning the VCPs. If they can't do it, why should the military pick it up. And are the NAAFI paying the miltary for this duty? It is beholden upon the NAAFI to provide security if they are taking the risk.

Fcuk the NAAFI.

This is not entirely without precedent. I remember at least a case where the court upheld the decision of a local police authority to bill a football club for providing extra man-power on match days...even though it was unsolicited....

this sounds like a job for the RAF Police.



serving flap - UP!
serving flap - DOWN!

:D:D:D

So if I get a posting to Germany and JHQ, how often do I have to guard the pies in the vending machine?? Is CR aggressive in his approach to getting them ?? Has anyone done a risk assessment ?? Is it on the SRM matrix ???

there will be nothing to vend. CR will eat all the pies :D

whereas those who know me might say that i already have... ;)

There is one other way of looking at this.

As a very young (long,long,long time ago ) soldier, it was a very quick learning curve as a member of the guard to 'assist' the canteen cowboy in emptying the NAAFI on pay night. Also very quick way for an extremely junior and inexperienced NCO to get 'blooded'

Still think that NAAFI should take responsibility for their own property. After all, what is the worst they can do - pull out

JNCOs were still doing canteen cowboy in NI when i left a few months ago, and the ROO had to supervise behaviour in three bars (two run by NAAFI).

it was less a case of protecting NAAFI property, and more a case of keeping the lads out of trouble - and out of the clutches of the moronic RAF police

Easy solution invite your mates round for a party eat all the pies and then there will be nothing left in the vending machines to guard!!

Why don't they close the vending area on a night? Surely most people go down town and get a kebab do people actually use it during silent hours?

How times have changed - in my day (he said whilst gently pushing a small, but very bright, kero lamp) 'No Ambition' pies were perfectly capable of defending themselves and if that failed those fine men from the Medic Ratcatchers units were around to put them out of their misery!
Surely it is we who should be guarded against the pies - not the other way round?

I don't actually have a problem with providing bods for Canteen Cowboy, because part of the reason we do that is G1 related; to ensure that the bar gets closed on time, people are generally behaving and the young kiddies aren't drinking themselves into oblivion (on a weekday at least).
However, this is something different; this is providing free manpower to a commercial, profit making organisation to protect their assets from theft and vandalism. Yes, the machines are also for the troops' benefit, but they are ultimately another means of achieving profit for NAAFI. A small amount of that profit will be returned to the Armed Forces for PRI, welfare, etc, but a much larger chunk will be going to shareholders. So why should the Army have to provide manpower for free?
What would happen if someone had vandalised the Sparkasse cashpoint? Or one of the tax-free car dealerships lost a few car radios? Would they be provided with free soldiers to look after their security? No, of course not; they would ask for increased GCP and RMP patrols maybe, and pay to install a few more CCTV cameras, the cost of which would be written off against tax.
This duty is wrong and unjust, especially given the increased tempo of deployments. training, etc that we also have. I too feel that RASU needs to look at this again, and remember that the days when NAAFI was non-profit making are long gone.
Mind you, I'm surprised that 1 MI Bn have not offered to meet this one half-way, which would help sweeten the pill a bit. Why not tell them to poke the duty, but offer to send someone along and give them a professional CCTV survey free of charge instead? This, and an RMP anti-crime/vandalism survey is more than fair, I think.