Conducting the Dining-In
Cocktails. Each member of the mess should arrive in the lounge within 10 minutes of opening time. Members should never arrive after the senior honored guest. The cocktail period usually lasts between 30 and 60 minutes. This time is intended to allow members to assemble before dinner, and to meet the guests. It is not an “attitude adjustment” period. Background music is appropriate. It should be soft, classical, recorded or live.
Assembling for Dinner. At the end of the cocktail period; the Vice sounds the dinner chime and directs the mess to proceed to the dining room. Members and guests assigned to the head table remain in the lounge or assemble in an anteroom. All others should proceed in an orderly fashion to their assigned seats and stand quietly behind their chairs.
By tradition, drinks and lighted smoking materials are never taken into the dining area.
There are a number of ways the head table members can enter the dining area. Depending on the set-up and the circumstances of the arrival of the head table, you need to pick one of these methods. Present the options to the President and choose one.
- Have President and guest of honor enter first with the President to the left of the guest of honor. Continue with the next ranking pair, with the ranking person to the right until all members are out.
- Have head table members file into the dining area in the order they are to be seated at the table. This order especially makes sense when the platform the head table is on is narrow and does not allow members to pass behind one another while taking their place at the table.
- Have the President and guest of honor enter the mess after everyone is assembled.
Following the National Anthem, the color guard departs the room. Since protocol does not require the colors, once posted, be retired, some commanders elect to dismiss the color guard at this time.
After the color guard departs, the President asks the Chaplain or an appointed member of the mess to deliver the invocation. After the invocation, the members of the mess and guests remain standing as the next order of business is toasting.
Wine Pouring Ceremony. Usually, wine glasses are already filled, but if a wine pouring ceremony is observed, members of the mess and guests will be seated immediately following the invocation. The President removes the stopper from the decanter placed before them and the senior officer at each table does likewise, following the President’s lead. Decanters are passed from hand to hand to the right, with each member filling their glass. Decanters never touch the table until all glasses have been filled and the President replaces the stopper and places the decanter on the table. Club service personnel should be ready to replace decanters as they are emptied, and to fill the water goblets of those who prefer not to drink wine. According to the traditions of Commonwealth nations, only port wine is used for toasting, and another wine is used as the dinner wine. The choice of wines is the Presidents prerogative. When all glasses have been charged, with either wine or water, and the President has replaced the decanter on the table, all members of the mess and guests rise for the toast.
Toasting. The custom of toasting is universal. It is believed that this custom came into wide acceptance after the effects of poison were discovered. When two persons, who might be antagonists, drank from the same source at the same instant an suffered no ill effects, a degree of mutual trust and rapport could be established. With this foundation laid, discussions could continue on a more cordial basis. Today, toasting is a simple courtesy to the person being honored.
It is not necessary or proper to drain the glass at the completion of each toast. A mere touch of the glass to the lips satisfies the ceremonial requirements. Toasts should be proposed in sequence and at intervals during the program of the evening.
Members of the mess and gentlemen stand to toast, but female guests remain seated to drink the toast unless it is considered a standing ovation. If still in doubt, the ladies should take their cue from the members of the head table.
Toasts to deceased persons are normally made with water.
The President proposes the first toast. If a toast to the colors is done, it is always the first toast, to which the members of the mess respond, "To the Colors."
Above Information Courtesy of the United States Air Force Academy
