NZ Men’s Sheds

HI Sheddies,

You’ll find the flyer here for the inaugural national conference for any of you that care to attend.

Menzshed conference 2010

E-mail : nb001@wave.co.nz

(from Neil Bruce)

Greetings all,
presently a steering group of four is preparing, on behalf of sheds
already established, an inaugural conference of men’s sheds in
Masterton from April 9-11th. This conference has principally been
organised to assist new sheds through establishment options, to
provide a network of sheds for members to support and visit each
other, to prevent unnecessary duplication, to learn collectively as
we combine our energies, expertise and experience to seek solutions
to problems and to achieve new goals and break new ground. The
Masterton shed has shown what is possible to achieve and we would
like to share their story along with your stories at this conference.
There are some critical areas we all need good information about,
Insurance, Public Liability, Safety in the Shed, First Aid, and we
need to find the best ways to sustainably fund sheds and their
activities. It is important to have local and national government
representatives aware of concerns we have and how these concerns can
be best addressed in the community.

The theme “Let the Shedding Begin” has at least four foci; awareness
raising for the wider community, including local and national
politicians, inspirational stories of the benefits of shedding for
individuals and communities, tools and ideas to equip shed advocates
grow the physical shed presence in each community, and discussion
about the formation of a National Association that can advocate and
promote the positive values that emerge from the Community Men’s
Shed model.

There will be other things to emerge – new friendships, enjoyment,
learning, humour, contacts and projects. And what about health,
wellbeing and innovation?

You all have so much to offer and if you wish to join in this
conference – please contact Peter McNeur peter.mcneur@waireap.org.nz
for more information

Cheers
Neil

We’ve been working hard in Canterbury to get our sheds up and going. You’ll find the first version of our flyer below (original design courtesy of the Wellington shed with a logo design courtesy of John Joseph Kingi. Thanks for the support guys!

You’ll find contact for the Cant’y groups on the Canty Menz Shed Flyer.

Australian Men’s Conference RprtNMB
The progress in Men’s Sheds in NZ has been rapid and there is obviously a need for further networking nationally that a number of us have mused about since last year. It appears that the time is right to establish some kind of network to begin with which can be developed further as issues rise for discussion. I am mindful of whatever happens it requires input from someone in each shed who has the mix of qualities to communicate well with members, suggest, develop and implement ideas, and without the tasks being too onerous have a reliable point of contact for questions and answers to be posted.

In my report to my sponsors, I have summarised at the end what issues are likely to be important and at the stage we are at in Hamilton, these centre around Insurance, Safety, and FINANCE. Critical to the successful operation of the shed I found overseas and in our own situation, is the role of coordinator. Because of the responsibilities and operation of the shed, this really needs to be possibly a paid position – I am not saying that volunteers can or should not do this. Tthe successful operation of a shed frequently revolves around a wonderful people person who has a good knowledge experience and understanding of people and trade related skills, practices including safety. Often this person has to be available during the day when many shed enthusiasts are in full time employ. Enough……

All sheds will be different but there are many issues that will result in lively discussion

Please find enclosed the report for my sponsors following the Australian Conference held last month.

I make a suggestion that we try and coordinate a type of video conference meeting firstly done through schools or agencies who have a video conferencing facility.

I will explore with my principal today what the logistical bits are and wonder if we threw that ball into your court Trevor for guidance (Oxford Area School) as a teacher using video conferencing already and maybe you could target some time next week before the school holidays as a time for some of us to attempt to connect nationally. Dare I say this might be better done one evening ?
In addition to that, it would be good to have some web central clearing point and I am aware that Don Pettitt and Gund Wehsling from our Shed and Arthur (West Franklin) have all been active in this area.

I appreciate the contacts you have made with me recently and I will try and get this invitation to as many of you as I can. While I send this from my home computer could you please reply via my work email br@melville-high.school.nz

If you are happy for me to share your contact details from here with each other then I will do so. I am not sure whether I have made contact with someone from Alexandra or Wanaka yet – if you know those people please forward this to them.

PS I have really only circulated this to those who have responded to me with particular sheds in development or up and running that I know about – 21 contacts so far.

Regards Neil

Neil Bruce (Dr)
166 Morrinsville Road
Newstead RD4
Hamilton 3284
NEW ZEALAND

ph +64 7 8560054
Fx +64 7 8560054
mob +64 21 1545026

We want to put info about your local shed on this web site? Please contat Donald at donald@canmen.org.nz and he will post it. We will also put info about it on a Google Map for you. http://maps.google.co.nz/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&lr=lang_en&msa=0&msid=102136086135953719706.00046bd03858714551c5c&ll=-41.244772,172.617188&spn=12.766272,28.54248&z=6

Want to start a shed? Contact us and we can tell you if anyone in your area is working on a shed now. Or we can tell others about you if you are working on one.