handbook
METHODS
A) Solo Responses performed in parallel then finding contact
B) Duet Responses created together
1. PURPOSE
The Purpose of our Shed is to
A
provide a safe, supportive and friendly environment for people of all ages to gather, volunteer, work, teach, learn and seek fellowship with other like-minded people.
B
help members maintain their health and wellbeing, make new friends, and enjoy working together on a range of projects.
Assist the local community and charities in practical ways whenever possible.
2. ATTENDANCE
We currently meet Mondays & Wednesdays from 10am to 3pm:
A
We have a coffee/tea area, a meeting room, and a workshop at the back of the building with a variety of hand & machine tools for woodwork & metalwork which have been donated or purchased.
B
For Safety, members must sign the Attendance Book on arriving and departing the Shed.
If you think safety rules are a pain, try having an accident.
3. CLOTHING
All members are expected to come to the Shed dressed in suitable clothing that does not pose a safety risk. This includes:
A
Suitable footwear
Tough overalls or long leg washable trousers or sensible work shorts
A cap or net or other means to contain long hair or beards to ensure that it will not be caught in moving machinery.
B
Shirt - Shirts should be tucked into trousers and long sleeves should either be buttoned or rolled up in such a way that no loose ends can be caught in machinery or on protruding materials.
Men
I think, yeah, it is different. As you get older, you have to adjust to a different role as a man, and you need to value yourself for different things, such as integrity and honesty and loyalty, rather than command and bravery and physical strength and, you know, all that kind of stuff, really.
And so, yeah, I think it is. It's quite a mental adjustment, and it goes alongside a lowering of testosterone. So, yeah, I mean, there's, there's a lot of changes, and I think we are both not very well prepared for it, obviously, you know, women go through the menopause, but for men, we really get told nothing whatsoever, but we have to, we have to adjust to it - and somehow to keep our ego intact even when our real influence and power are diminishing. I think it's a really good thing for us to go through as men. To learn to collaborate, to seek to be valued for who we are, and to look out for each other a bit more.
And I think that's why ‘Men’s Sheds’, I’ll try and bring it back, is such a useful thing. It’s because it’s about being valued for who we are and what we do. There's no pressure to do a particularly complicated thing if I want to simply create a simple table with four legs and a flat piece of wood. No one would say that's stupidly simple. Why are you wasting your time on that?
So I think it's much more self regulated, and there's not the same pressure to do something to a standard other than to look out for other people. And it's a good exercise to do that, because on safety alone here, if we weren't watching out for each other, we could end up with some serious injuries. They're powerful machines, sharp blades, and all of us don't have the eyesight, the reactions or the strength we used to have, so it's quite a dangerous environment, and it's quite crowded. So I think there's a real need to look out for each other.
Women
Well, my husband died about five years ago now, and after about two or three years, when you've solved all the problems that go with somebody passing away, I suddenly began to realise that I was quite lonely in the sense that, I just wasn't doing the things that my husband and I used to do together. We used to go cycling, we used to go walking. So all that disappeared, and it's very difficult to get back into the same kind of routine when you're on your own.
So I decided I need to be meeting other people somehow. And somebody within the village that I live in told me about, at the time, it was ‘Men in Sheds’, and told me about, you know, where it was, and how I could just go along and see what it was like. And that's exactly what I did. Went along to see what it was like. And they had got ladies who had joined at the shed, even though it had started as a ‘Men in Sheds’ when it originally was set up.
And I came along because I thought there were things that I could learn from them, that would be helpful - to me - in my own home when I was there. But it would also be giving me time to spend with other people so I wasn't on my own all the time.
So I’ve come along hoping to learn how to use various kinds of tools, so I can do things for myself around the house, mend things. You know, I'm not necessarily here to take a wood turning course or something like that. I just want to learn how to use tools correctly so I can use them back at home for various things.
Because I do like doing things. I am a doer - so that's why I've come to the shed.
Responsibility
The ultimate dream for this shed would be it becomes self-sustaining, in the sense that the membership grows, and enough people from the general membership want to get involved in running it. So that we're not reliant on the same people all the time to manage the shed.
Primarily, it's about making sure it's open and accessible to the members, when it's supposed to be open accessible. It's making sure there's things like tea and coffee available, and milk and biscuits and things like that, because people just expect it. It's making sure that you've got sufficient people here to supervise sessions. Um… and it's, I think it's making it as easy as possible for users to use the facility.
But there's a lot goes on in the background to make that happen. It's like, I've just ordered another load of blue roll, because we nearly run out blue roll. So it's bits like that, that you're right, people don't see. And they don't see about managing the money, making sure everyone pays. We've recently just had to do a repair on the outside of this, because we had a leak. So it's making sure that sort of thing is done. Spares for the band saw, we need some more blades for the band saw, so it's making sure they're ordered.
But also, it's not a member's job. If I go and become a member of the gym, for argument's sake, I don't expect to have to be responsible for getting the machinery maintained. So it's the same here. It's doing all those little bits in the background that no one knows happen, but that the shed wouldn't function without it.
So it's, ultimately, I want it to be self sustaining. But financially, it can never be self sustaining. And a lot of sheds rely on local authorities to fund them, give them buildings. There's another shed locally, they're in the back end of a big business, and they allow them to use their electricity, and host their site, and they just do odd favours for them, so they're fairly secure. But it's reliant on someone else, so unless you have a relationship like that, it's quite hard for a shed to be self sustaining, I think is how I would sum it up.
So yeah, make sense?
Good.
Because sometimes I do waffle, I know.