The speaker should be contacted well in advance and advised of the nature of the evening. 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.
Background music is appropriate.
Officers 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 room. When the mess is assembled, those assigned to the head table enter, with the honored guest on the commander s right, followed by the next senior officer with the next senior official, and so forth. Once the head table is in place, ruffles and flourishes are sounded as appropriate to the senior member.