Conference 2012 DH

MEN’S SHEDS 2012 INTERNATIONAL SURVEY

Who can participate: Any Men’s Shed coordinator.

What do I do? Type the following URL into your web browser and follow the prompts.

URL: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MensSheds

How long does it take? About 15 minutes.

How will it help Men’s Sheds? The results from this survey will be used to build the research evidence base about Men’s Sheds and help the Men’s Sheds movement target future funding.

Want more information? Contact Nathan Wilson at

nathan.wilson@sydney.edu.au or (02) 9351 9680.

Advance Notice

A National MENZ SHED CONFERENCE will be held in Wellington from  June 29-July 1st 2012  (the first weekend of the July school holidays).

Wellington has been confirmed as a host city as a central position for sheds throughout New Zealand to access and will follow the Adult and Community Education conference “CommunitySolutions  Ako te Katoa, Tuhonohono te Katoa The Business of Learning”planned for June  27-29^th “.

Timed to assist the growth of Community Men’s Sheds nationally,  a steering group is now calling for programme and presentation support to offers of financial / sponsorship involvement. To respond to regular questions from sheds in the leadup, we would like to issue  a regular fortnightly update of SHED CONFERENCE information by email and website.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

We wish to confirm a public register of Sheds in New Zealand.  Several Shed members are already expressing planning  to visit other sheds in New Zealand and Overseas. National Membership will assist this with reciprocal benefits. Ideally each shed should have some presence on the internet and this can begin with a list of sheds, a physical address, contact name and details and hours of operation.

Please complete the feedback section below for us to update our data base.

A National Association

Our  national association is purely an association of  member sheds which is supported by the Australian Men’s Shed Association and as of August 2011 is now  a part of an International Association of Men’s sheds. This International Association presently includes Ireland, England, Wales, Canada and recently in some European countries like Portugal. Our national association does not dictate what each shed should or should not do, but where possible will move to attract advantages and benefits for all member sheds  by collectively working with each other.  Already some  business discounts and  insurance scheme reductions have already saved our shed several hundred dollars. Your ideas about how our association can work best work for each other collectively is paramount and will be the focus for us at the conference.

Encourage shed representatives to attend this conference to add a unique lustre to an  impressive lineup of around 40 sheds and hundreds of members already in New Zealand.

Kind regards

Neil Bruce

STEERING GROUP MENZ SHED AOTEAROA

Stage One:

• ·         Date Confirmed     June 29, 30 and July 1^st 2012.
• ·         Wellington Venue Confirmation. Wellington High School Community Education Facillities.
• ·         Format suggestions

o    of a Shed Crawl (* see below) during one day as part of the conference i.e. creating the opportunity to visit various sheds in the vicinity of Wellington  / Kapiti Coast. Sheds – how does this sit with you WELLINGTON SHEDS?  Could focus on particular activities or themes at each shed or at other venues around Wellington.

• ·         The contributor net is cast….. Your suggestions please

o   eg David Helmers Executive Officer  Australian Men’s Shed Association has indicated his intention to attend our conference.  Read his speech for opening the Irish Mens Shed Association  last year http://www.menssheds.ie/2011/01/26/david-helmers-address-to-the-irish-mens-sheds-forum/

o   Government Representatives.: compared with Australia, our National Government has been noticeably absent in showing understanding or public support for the positive contribution that Community Men’s sheds have made already in NZ. What can we do to turn this around? Your ideas on who to invite would be appreciated note the following details. We can then build up a series of initiatives for their involvement

§  Bill English Min of Finance; Steve Joyce, Min Tertiary Education, Innovation, Skills and Employment; Tony Ryall Min Health; Paula Bennett, Social Development & Youth Affairs; Nathan Guy Min Veterans Affairs; Craig Foss Assoc Min of Education; Jo Goodhew Min Community Development and Voluntary Sector, Women’s Affairs & Senior Citizens Assoc Min Health; Peter Dunne Assoc Min Health; Requests for  programme content (we know there will be a diversity of interests) – what would be helpful to you? See priorities below.

• ·         Your personal contributions: You may have a personal skill to offer, or know someone who can give time/ money / energy to our conference / expo / project.

*What about a MENS SHED EXPO ? “what I make in my shed”   or something similar which would expand the catchment of conference members beyond the finite sheds already established and could raise awareness / share enthusiasm and focus attention on what men are good at and what they are already doing. Innovation also springs to mind and the potential perhaps to be taken on a tour of a Weta Workshop could be inspirational?  Has anyone contacts and ideas here?

Another idea (that appeals to me as a musician) is to create an expo of musical instruments (made by people in sheds) locally or nationally with some being guests to entertain at an evening social event?

Stage Two:

Feedback from you / your shed

• ·         Name of Shed / physical address
• ·         Contact person / email  / phone
• ·         Likelihood your shed will be represented
• ·         Your contacts – are there potential sponsors you are aware of who could assist you / us to run this conference. It is about networks and contacts – what can we achieve together?
• ·         Your personal and shed priority interests for this conference

Sustaining the Shed

Safety / OSH / insurance issues

Mix of programme personal and community projects

Management and Governance Issues

Support for Health and Wellbeing

Partnerships with groups / Mentoring

Encouraging diversity within the Shed

Special Shed Projects

Shed Funding

• ·         Your Needs?
• ·         final comments / fears / suggestions.

Please cc your responses to Martin Cox, (new men’s shed coordinator for Canterbury region) martin@canmen.org.nz

Neil Bruce (Dr)

166 State Highway 26

Newstead RD6

Hamilton  3286

NEW ZEALAND

ph             +64 7 8560054      

Fx +64  7 8560054

mob             +64 21 1545026      

nb001@wave.co.nz

The funding for this initiative was generously supplied by Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand – the Catholic Social Justice Agency. You can say hi to Martin by writing to him at martin@canmen.org.nz.

TO REGISTER

• Please arrange to pay a nominal membership fee of $10  directly into Wairarapa REAP Bank Account, where funds will be held on behalf until such a bank account is opened.
  • ·         Westpac  03 0687 03144400 00   Reference MENZ2012
  • ·         Completion of a national membership form attached should be sent to menz@waireap.org.nz
  • Once registration has been completed a MENZ  SHED  AOTEAROA registration number will be emailed to you.

You will notice that we have adapted an Australian Men’s Shed Association form – please N/A the STATE references.

You will also notice that  registration requires certification as  a  trust, incorporated society or auspicing body

AND an  insurance policy that covers Public Liability to A$10,000,000.

We are not at that stage yet and welcome (with intent) the registration of new and potential sheds ( those where an infrastructure is being created).

As mentioned earlier

Once members are registered the Association can begin to

Undertake strategic development and make national funding applications.

Provide support and guidance to sheds as they start up.

Put our sheds on a professional basis for long term national and local strategic development.

Organise a national  Conference of Shed Reps in 2012 (possibly June 2012 – such a  conference could include support and insights from Australian Men’s Shed Association Manager David Helmers)

Kind regards

Neil Bruce

Neil Bruce (Dr)

166 State Highway 26

Newstead RD6

Hamilton  3286

NEW ZEALAND

ph +64 7 8560054

Fx +64  7 8560054

mob +64 21 1545026

Here is an offer from a supplier of metal working tools. (copied from e-mail to Donald Pettitt, the guy currently maintaining this site)

Hello Donald,
Thanks for your email and for putting us on the NZ blog.
We had a display of these tools at the recent Australian National Men’s Shed conference held in Brisbane this year and had an awful lot of interest in them.
If you or any of your local colleagues happened to be there (as I know there were a couple of NZ delegates) you may have seen us?

We are fairly well known to AMSA here if you wanted someones opinion about what we have to offer.

For anyone who is maybe interested in some of this equipment for their workshop, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Seeing our DVD is the best way to appreciate what these tools have to offer -I can either send you a couple to hand around, or send one to anyone who is after one.

I look forward to hearing from you again soon.

Best Regards

Greg Cowie
Chevington Tools
Ph:  +613 5435-3902
Mob: +61 419-388-463
Email: chev.tools@bigpond.com
Web: www.chevingtonmetaltools.com

Menssheds November 2011

Neil Brice presented the attached Power Point at the 2011 Australian men’s shed conference. Get in touch with him if you think you would find any of it useful for your shed.

New Brighton Menz Shed Philosophy