Brihard said:
That's nice, but the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'. Existing QM and food services organizations - which have a primary sustainment role - should easily be able to run canteens on operations; that was what I saw over and over in Afghanistan, which I think is about as 'operational' as it gets. Imagine that; we actually have field deployable trades whose primary job it is to deal with keeping stuff in stock, and keeping track of perishables. And - wait for it - we even have people in the CF whose primary job is money management.
The historical intransigence of the senior service notwithstanding, in today's stressed military we do not need uniformed members whose primary role could even conceivably lead to the establishment of full time PYs for coffee ***** or running canteens. If the Navy can demonstrate and justify a legitimate requirement for a specific manner of service aboard ship, that can be delegated to cooks so that we can retain the compulsory deployability that comes with being in uniform. For EVERY other non-operational position which stewards fill, it should be part of our ongoing rationalization to offload those tasks to others who already have the various parts of those jobs as part of their trades.
The recovered PYs can be pushed right back into operational units. This isn't even the familiar 'up yours- fill the battalions!' refrain we in green are fond of. I'm sure even if the navy kept every PY formerly dedicated to it would find ample use for them- some small percentage for the tasks stewards were actually critical for, and the rest to trades that are in constant short supply.
The incident I described is not a case of "someone who knew someone, who heard that...." I have direct first hand knowledge of all the details I provided (was involved in the CF Steward survey, drafted Navy's response to the Army's Critical Manning message and briefed MARCOM on the details of the Army's write-off request for an upcoming NPF Board of Directors meeting). Although time has caused me to forget the precise details in terms of the actual dollar amounts involved, the gist of what I described was real and the amounts were significant.
Please note that I'm not talking about a couple of guys running a small unit canteen with a few cases of pop, chips and chocolate bars. I'm talking about NPF operations that can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars (a ship's Exchange operation can easily be worth $100K). It's not appropriately managed as a secondary duty. It's also not simply a matter of counting stuff or putting it on shelves. Although there is some significant overlap with aspects of what RMS clerks and Sup Techs do (who also do a heck of a lot more than count stuff or put things on shelves), the occupations are not fully interchangeable. Think of it this way: I think we would all agree that Vehicle Techs and Marine Engineers are not able to do each other's jobs, despite the fact that they are both mechanics and would have a pretty good understanding of the basics of what the other does.
As for Stewards themselves, the Navy has studied it in depth and there is still a justifiable and viable role for them to play and one that cannot be filled with civilian NPF employees or wounded/injured members that cannot meet UofS. Stewards are busy people and as a CF trade, it is filled with dedicated and enthusiastic professionals. To the best of my knowledge, we don't have any difficulty recruiting. You would also be hard-pressed to find another navy that doesn't have stewards in some form or another.
Now back to the actual point of this thread. Although perhaps poorly written, with the appropriate background understanding of the requirement, one can read between the lines and see that this could be a viable full-time job (which would not include actually making and serving individual cups of coffee to the CO). It would all depend on the volume of sales and the overall size of the operation. Having said that, if the operation is big enough to require a full-time person, it would also be big enough to require more professional NPF knowledge than a corporal who is not trained in NPF can be expected to have. Being on a static base as well, in my opinion, this would be best performed by an NPF (i.e. Canex) employee. However, if you get Canex involved, then it will fall under Canex's rules and the profits then get distributed according to Canex's royalty distribution formula, which is probably exactly what the unit involved was trying to avoid in the first place...
On a final note, it's interesting to see that everyone involved seems to have forgotten that years ago, the CDS actually gave specific direction to the effect that units were not set up "coffee boats" of this magnitude and that all requirements were to be deferred to Canex.