Express Fun Delivery from Norton Shed
Whitby Town Shed is launching a Thursday morning Tech Shed
A decision was made last month to go ahead with a new Tech Shed on a Thursday morning, led by Aiden Richards. It remains part of Whitby Town Shed with the Wednesday Wood Shed and has the same purpose. That purpose is to bring people together to work Shoulder to Shoulder in order to benefit from the company of others – friends. It is that which lifts people’s spirits and which they most appreciate and value. It what changes their feelings.
The digital world is just a different distraction to woodworking using different tools. The Whitby Town Shed did not want to sub-divide and put off a decision for quite a long time but they had to accept that it was not possible for them to be together in one space because of noise and dust! Primarily in fact the noise because the woodworking side has really taken off to make some very attractive garden pieces and it is difficult to maintain conversation.
To create an improved environment for the Tech Shed and the equipment, it is proposed to create an enclosure with a new stud wall alongside the wood store, stretching forward, to create a 3m x 3m working space. Not to ceiling height but to a normal room height (2.4m). There will be “kitchen unit” storage with worktops, plus table and chairs.
Take a look below.
You will note mention of cameras, the 3D printer is shown and there is a monitor. The cameras are a part of creating infrastructure to support hybrid meetings to allow housebound people to join in some of the doing that those present engage in.
Whitby Town Shed with input from Norton Men’s Shed which is preparing a funding bid to North Yorkshire Council for a project to move forward awareness and use of digital services, processes and tools. Not only amongst ourselves but taking it to the general community too. It will use digital tools and services but the focus of the project (working title Being As One) will not be on technology, but on the obstacles that technology may overcome in different situations. Solving problems.
One of the problems Shedders commonly have is loneliness and isolation. Acute cases are people with severe mobility problems and/or acute illness and/or maybe with no relatives/friends in regular contact. Filling time with some purpose. Housebound becomes tedium.
That’s the human problem Sheds work to help resolve in ways tailored to individual needs.
Norton is into candalabra for a charity’s Summer Ball (for supporters and funders)
20 are needed to set off artisticly half of the 40 tables of 8. 3D printing half metre tall, 4 armed candalabra.
It’s a long job and Aidan has stepped up to print nuts with washers as decorative features on the bases. 80 nuts with washers. In Norton 4 other 3D printers are busy at it. To give an idea, to print one base takes 4.5 hours. In total to make one complete candalabra will take nearly 12 hours!!
Here are some of the nuts bein printed by Aidan. The design was sent on the internet from Norton.
Staithes Shed’s news about The Iron Shed
Another NE Shed is launched at Skinningrove with the help of Staithes Men’s Shed members. There is an excellent account in the June edition of “Talk of the Town” the free magazine distributed in Loftus and East Cleveland.
Whitby District Sheds in Robin Hood’s Bay and Whitby Town, and Norton-on-Tees Shed, send their congratulations to Land of Iron and to Staithes Shed.
It is nearly 10 years since the dream of Sheds in North Yorkshire became a reality as Sleights Area Men’s Shed (SAMS) established in Littlebeck (opened in March 2016). In family terms SAMS was the parent, Whitby, Staithes and Robin Hood Bay were children and Norton Shed and The Iron Shed are now the grandchildren!
Sadly, SAMS closed during the Covid lockdown period so we have had a death as well as births.
There’s something to celebrate for everybody in the opening of The Iron Shed!
It is a proposed (hopefully delivered in the next couple of months) enclosure for a digital Shed (Tech Shed) as a separate morning under Whitby Town Shed banner. All the dust and noise of other operations means they needed to make it separate. At the same time they are applying for a grant to promote digital inclusion through hybrid meetings of groups and to publicise the possibilities of the underlying technologies employed to non-Shed scenarios.
Norton Shed (Paul, Graham and Derrick) is working with them on the application (pooling their and our knowledge) and are applying for a small grant to exploit in Norton what is being undertaken in Whitby.
Speak to Paul or Graham to know more. But it’s an exciting step foward of online collaboration (with people the focus, not technology!).
You can be a part of it and not have to leave the familiar of Shedding behind! Derrick is living proof!
Some other fast fixes
Walter and Electric Paul shrink a platic pipe onto a funnel using hot air.
Lollipop Peter and Dennis the Menace getting on with a pallet wood store for Great Ayton Scouts.
Pile them up and sell them cheap for Daisy Chain
Kevin has bragging rights over Dennis.
All wheels are wheel shape now and two are painted black by Jacko
Walter eases up for five minutes
Wood store ready for fence paint. Then we ship.
A second is to be made for Shedder Pat and her logs.
VERY GOOD to see Deep Sea Dave amongst us today
How does he do it? Yet again he bounces back. Out of hospital and to the Shed. Thanks to Cavalry Kevin for keeping an eye on him.
It’s a thing Shedders do for mates.
Social Precribing – NHS video
NHS Introduction to Social Prescribing
It is a simple summary in express mode!
Do you have a strategy? Could you send it to me?
These were two quick fire questions to me (Graham) from someone in the middle of a wider telephone conversation about (yes!) Sheds.
I fired back ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, adding that I had often developed and redeveloped Shed strategies (5 Sheds) but never as a set of bullet point instructions. Thus, No, because it is not a concise one pager! I said I had very recently presented one thread (one bullet point?) of strategy publicly on Norton Men’s Shed Facebook page and shared it to Norton Village Facebook site for Nortonians to read. Attracting named followers, though strangers, because Sheds are a curiosity to most people!
Perhaps openness is a strategy bullet point itself, being transparent about what the Shed is about, what it does and why. The strategy thread written on Facebook in 6 episodes led to a simple message of the necessity for us to make friends of people in the community. People as individuals and through them their organisations, if any. Making friends is work that requires effort. Making acquaintances just happens.
Friendships are about getting under other people’s skin by meaningful, regular contact in the course of what is being done in the everyday. That is the principle that underlies the Shed and the secret of its success for men over nearly 4 decades. Friendships are about trust and “Shed = Family”.
Therefore, three starter bullet points of a strategy could be:
- Make friends with people and build mutual trust
- Share openly with others what the Shed stands for and what it is doing. It’s progress. Build relationships which have ave a habit of being practically beneficial!
- Develop billboards to present the Shed that genuinely attract interest and that do not offend. Offer help and take help.
Each begs the question of “how?”. The answer is that there is no fixed approach to doing it and nor (IMHO) is there a Shed corporate way to do it. Shedders do it by being like Velcro that catches on people somewhere!
I see the bullet points more as principles with a chosen ethos than a “strategic plan”. Things that point in a direction of travel and the manner of doing it.
If the focus of a start-up Shed group is the equipment, a shiny place to meet, and a narrow time slot of “an activity” then it is really a club, a single interest group. A Shed is very much a family and the Shed provides through its family members opportunities for each other. To work with and help each regain purpose and the feeling that each matters. A Shed is a mix of People Repair Shop, Dating Agency and Church Ministry.
The Shed is not a business. It will not be usual to have a business plan! That may be necessary to have for a specific reason to satisfy a funding partner if big money is involved. Otherwise, keep it simple and understandable to Shedders.
I don’t think we can go too far wrong when starting or running a Shed if we have a strong focus on people. The rest follows. The rest is important but they are supports to the main purpose. Tools of the job.
The other key principle about people is to let them do for themselves. In effect to run the Shed themselves. To have a flexible leadership that lets people lead and plan on the shop floor as well as a few in the boring board room!
Include those who have leadership qualities but cannot realistically do so because of age or health. Such people often have a purposeful attitude based on their lived experience and, indeed, have a vision that they can contribute. Inclusivity, the magic of Sheds. Banter too.
Going back to my questioner, I expressed the view that it was less about having a formula facing into the community, and more about an attitude of mind of seeing opportunities and having feelings rather than proof. Failure is not a waste of time. Stray onto unfamiliar by-paths but stay in touch with the main trail.
- At the beginning realise that there are some “governance” issues involved in running a Shed. Do not get hung up on them. 1500 UK Sheds have managed it and not everything has to be in place before you start. Facing it too early can scare people off getting involved. There are some very practical templates available from UK Men’s Shed Association. You can register your Shed as being in development with UKMSA to unlock more help. It may not cost anything at that stage.
- Look outwards. Let the individual and corporate minds wander and be wiiling to follow a sidetrack – returning if it seems an unproductive direction to follow. However, give it time!
- Sheds cannot just be copied as text book examples. The fun is to write a Shed’s own chapter.
- Time is the gift Shedders (and anyone) gives to each other and a cause. It is the most valuable investment.
- Finance is needed, but that alone does not guarantee success, nor will lack of it prevent early stage progress. Struggling is what develops Shed muscle and helps Shedders.
- Sheds are delicate plants that grow and need nurturing. Trying to force them like rhubarb makes them weak and spindly!
- Take Shedders along with you. Not always easy and intentional time must be given to it.
- Assess progress but be careful when measuring success. Norton’s measure of success is people being changed for the better in their own eyes. It’s not finance, equipment, premises, plaudits, numbers. It’s the spirit in the Shed.
Conclusion.
- Dreams are thoughts that come in our sleep and stay with us when awake
- Visions are big ideas that come when awake and are an architect’s sketchy lines on paper to answer a need
- Principles are guidelines for what a Shed is and what it aims to do
- Visit existing local Sheds and discover their leaders, Shedders, style, how they began, the mistakes along their road as well as successes, who helped them. Men’s Sheds are not Ikea units to assemble. Sheds are made to different plans from different Lego blocks.
- Strategy builds these (and other things) together into a draft staged plan, with guestimates of timescales, resources, people and finance.
- Actions populate the strategy and move things forward on the ground. Results will feed back to amending the strategy.
- Develop good people skills in the early stages. That will stand you in good stead as the Shed grows from the first handful.
Do not forget it is supposed to benefit people and be fun!