Struggling Snacko...

[BQZip01]

Roll Calls are fun, and got to see quite a few in AETC that followed the same sequence. Once I left and went on to my operational sq, I started asking about those type of morale events and the majority of the responses I got were "that's a fighter thing, we don't do that...". It sucks squadron morale is viewed as a "fighter thing"!

I'd like to start something like that up though, but sometimes people are so set in their ways they go out of their way to not have a good time...

As far as the snack bar is concerned...

You could always take inventory, calculate what you should have earned and post an integrity % of who is paying. Most guys aren't intentionally ripping off the snack bar, but think "oh, it's just me, it's just a soda" when in fact everyone thinks that, and no one pays. When someone in charge sees the snack bar has a 15% integrity rating, people start paying more often.

Also, you can just stop restocking it.

You might also consider putting up a small video camera over the money. We found a person who was stealing money from the fund about once a week ($200/week!!!). It also encourages honesty.

Another option is to put up an IOU sheet. That way it is easy to mark instead of saying "I'll pay it back."

Edited August 11, 2009 by BQZip01

[Dupe]

By dumb luck, I seem to be one of the younger guys showing up to every squadron I've ever been in. As a result, I have rediculous Snack-O skills. Here's my thoughts in random order:

1) Pay-pal -you can have the bros repay their debt via credit card. Pay-pal isn't the only, or even the best pay-by-credit card service out there, either. Shop around.

2) Case-lot sales -Why buy Diet Coke at $2.98 a 12-pack once a month when you can buy it once-a-quarter at $0.50 a 12-pack?

3) Buy in bulk -Is anything in the snack bar perishable? Exactly. Buy a truck load or pallet of the crap you sell the most.

4) Airshows - This is your opportunity to provide T-shirts and patches to the world. I highly recommend Canadian and European airshows.

5) The Home-Station Airshow -Volunteer to help with the planning at the wing level. Volunteer so that you can get first dibs on the beer tent.

6) The Delinquents -You can't MAKE dudes pay. You can make the delinquent list part of the Top-3 step brief, send the list to the DO, or make checking out with you an outprocessing requirement (you can get a snack-o sign off on vMPF). Be warned that your top delinquents will likely be the wing and OG leadership. You can chase down the bros...let the DO tackle the higher-ups.

7) Keep Good Books -You will win no awards for properly tracking snacko cash. The snacko can be shut down and you get an LOR (or higher) for crappy books. Its kinda like SOF or giving the General an instrument check.

8) Random Jobs -The snack-o is the go-to individual for stuff like going-away lithos, awards plaques, and the rediculous painted helmets we give to the honorary SQ/CCs and the local mayor. Make good friends and take care of the people you rely on to create such items. The boss may have no idea that you're out of Snickers, but you'll damn-sure look like an ass if you don't have the framed lithograph with all the squadron RMOs ready for the OG's change of command even though you found out about the tasking two days prior.

9) Landing Fee -the landing fee should cover all the initial patches/T-shirts a bro gets showing up to the squadron. It should also cover his going-away litho or wood. Consider collecting additional landing fees for squadron deployments to Red Flag or down-range.

10) Upgrades - charge dudes a keg when they earn a monumentous upgrade (2Fl, 4Fl, IP in the fighter world...maybe AC, IP, and MC in the heavy world).

11) Kick Ass - As snacko, you are the most visible Lt and the Lt who was given the most rope. You can either lasso the bull with it or hang yourself. I'm pretty sure I'm at where I'm at today based partially on my snacko skills.

[pawnman]

You might also consider putting up a small video camera over the money. We found a person who was stealing money from the fund about once a week ($200/week!!!). It also encourages honesty.

Another option is to put up an IOU sheet. That way it is easy to mark instead of saying "I'll pay it back."

The IOU sheet is MONEY. We've got an excel spreadsheet with the whole squadron on it, and a bunch of empty containers...you just put a check in a container for every .50 you owe. Every two weeks or so, the Snacko tallies your tickmarks and prints a new sheet with a dollar amount next to your name...and fresh empty containers. We've even got a color code...$0-10, you're green, $10-20, yellow, $20+, red.

[slacker]

When I was snacko, we kept losing money from our snack bar. I noticed that every Thursday morning we were light. The cleaners came thru every Wednesday night, gee I wonder where the money is going. I made some signs that said this area is under video surveillance (because the boss was nervous) and set up the squadron video camera the next Wednesday. Thursday morning, the fund was light again and the video nailed the cleaner. We gave the tape to SPs and the same cleaner wasn't cleaning the next week.

We pretty much do most formation debrief in the bar over a few beers. If you screwed something up, you owe a round. Make the bar everyday user friendly. We have a computer with a power point hog-log running on a plasma behind the bar. You add pics from your most recent TDYs/deployments- it's usually funny stuff and keeps folks laughing.

We used to have a quarterly party with different sponsors. Pilots take a quarter, loads take the next, support has a quarter, and leadership has the last. Maybe a burger burn, shrimp and crawdads, brisket, etc. Each section pays for the party food but the bar keeps the profits on beer and anything above cost.

You want to sell items with a great profit margin, that means buying cheap or in bulk. A drink that cost $.25 to buy and you sell for $.50 is better than the shirt you buy for $12 and sell for $15. You'll also sell many more drinks than shirts. When you order merch, keep in mind you'll only sell so many shirts, hats and coins to squadron members, so don't tie up too much capital with a gigantic order that you won't sell out of until 2012.

[Guest CA]

Stumbled across this this morning - http://www.esnacko.com Don't know if that helps you any or not.

[brabus]

When I was snacko, we kept losing money from our snack bar. I noticed that every Thursday morning we were light.

An even easier way to fix this problem is to lock the damn cash container. Get a normal metal locking money container (from staples, etc) and throw a lock on there that only the snacko has. Now people can put money in, but it's not coming out without the snacko. Problem solved. Also, the hack sheet on the fridge or whatever is a great idea and makes it convenient for everyone.

[slacker]

An even easier way to fix this problem is to lock the damn cash container. Get a normal metal locking money container (from staples, etc) and throw a lock on there that only the snacko has. Now people can put money in, but it's not coming out without the snacko. Problem solved. Also, the hack sheet on the fridge or whatever is a great idea and makes it convenient for everyone.

We had someone steal the entire lock box. So, that didn't work.

[Cell Dweller]

We had someone steal the entire lock box. So, that didn't work.

We had some good-old boy civilians bolt the coffee bar lock-box to the sweetner/creamer (STS) table. That puppy is not going anywhere, and when it's collection time we have an old coffee can we tansfer the money into which does not stay in the office.

Getting H2O from Sam's is the best bet. We charge $0.50 for a bottle that is $1.25 down the hall in the vending machine. The bottle cost us $0.20 each, with the dividend going to social activities.

[brabus]

We had someone steal the entire lock box. So, that didn't work.

Bolting it to the counter top is easy. You just can't trust everyone nowadays (unfortunately mostly due to the cleaning crews).

[Vertigo]

We had a great gig in Australia- selling Aussie beer to outgoing aircrews at a 1 USD for 1 AUD exchange rate (current rate at the time .65 usd for 1 aud). Rather than trying to figure out a price that would make us money with the exchange rate constantly fluctuating we'd figure that was the easiest way and as long as the USD was on top we'd make money... we were unprepared as to how much we'd sell though. When we got a new CC and he saw our MWR fund was over 20K he quickly liquidated the account (mandatory luncheons and team building outings) and made sure we spent whatever we made from that point on.

For example: 1 case VB cost us $13 + another $2 tax; $15 AUD x .65 = $9.75 USD. Sell the case at $15 USD and you make $5.25 a case. When you're selling 20 cases evey time a plane left (twice a week) then you can see how quickly that added up.

So in summary my post has no bearing whatsoever on your scenerio unless you can somehow manage to import aussie beer and sell it at a huge profit.