Making Tracks

This is good news and indeed he was missed (well, there’s an unfinished job!!). On a more serious note he was missed because he is a very quiet person but is such good company. I had thought it was more like missing for 3 weeks but by the end of this week it would be 4.

Then there is a Shedder who said “See you next Monday” but did not appear at all that week. We don’t like to pressure. The following week a call was made to discover a family matter had required his undivided attention. 

It is sometimes hard to keep up with people’s movements. They are free agents and we decided against tagging people! Sometimes they tell one or two their movements but we don’t run a central diary. However, they are missed.

Returning to XXXX, it was a bit of “strange” joy to read it. He’d been through “another” heart attack but he wanted us to know he wanted to be back at the Shed. Sorry for what had happened, but pleased he felt he belonged.

We are a bunch of people, mainly men, who apart from the Shed would likely never have met. We are very diverse people by nature but added to that very diverse in the situations we find ourselves. 

How is the Shed funded and what is the core cost?

Starting with the core cost, it is not salaries (we are all volunteers!) but the cost of using the premises we occupy, plus electricity, fuel and insurance. As things stand now, in a full year the core (unavoidable) cost would be approaching £4000.

Subs for a full year will probably raise £3000 of that although maybe more as we plan to increase our use (Wednesdays and some afternoons possibly). Getting our head around reclaiming donations (i.e. subs) might add £600.

What we take as subs is about a third of our total income. The rest comes from external donations and grants. So far this year it has been donations from Billingham Buccaneers and The Teesside Charity that have been headline amounts but we also recover income from the advanced payments from grants from 2024 that we can “bank” once we have produced final reports to the funders. That is starting to happen. Then there is likely to be a couple of grants received in late summer.

We have to adhere to Charity Commission rules and all that we do must serve charitable ends according to Norton Shed Constitution overseen by our Trustees.

We basically serve communities (principally Norton but a bit wider) of which we are as individuals a part, of course.

Expenditure for 2025 to end of July.

Donations and grants come from work done! A different sort of work to Shed work and involving considered interaction with funders and of course writing applications demonstrating our role as a charity open to others (not a private club), with conditions. One condition is that we have space across the week but the main condition is that someone needs it, not just wants it. In that we have had considerable help through introductions from the Social Prescriber Link Workers and similar roles in other administrations.

Income for the same period.

The back office work is a treadmill because the lead times for grants can be many months before knowing outcomes. That is the case with one to LNER recently submitted. The current funding climate requires us to be quite creative in what we do and in identifying new ways to help new groups of people help themselves. Hence the 3D printing, model railway plans and ideas for craft activities. Some of the latter is deliberately geared to table activities not requiring excessive standing.

We have to appeal to funders and do what we can to help them too in their role. The publicity we do is not for ourselves but to acknowledge and support funders who often draw their finances from long term benefactors they have relationships with.

Thus, we need to be on the ball with funding opportunities suited to us and the range of things we do. The challenge is to explain what we will do with a grant. Money isn’t just given away. When we receive it we have to account for what we do with it. Hence accounts are important!

WE ARE ON A SEARCH for ideas of new themes of interest and new beneficiaries to help.

We should be submitting two or three new bids in the next month or two.

One topic  be around making with wood and plastic. It’s finished items would be destined for the wider community.

Another may be based on digital inclusion and supporting/equipping the housebound. Possibly setting up a project that is an example for others to follow because we on our own can only touch the tip of the community need iceberg.

Not saying more on here for reasons of confidentiality, but we’d be happy to have other thoughts from Shedders on what might be needed. Have a chat with Paul, Dennis or Graham. At present they are the bid team but we’d welcome a couple more on board.

It might be timely to mention here the Shed’s gratitude to the donors of “things”. Many Shedders have done this but also people from the community near and far who have caught the vision of what we are about and want to donate. We ended up with lengths of timber from a couple of sources including one in Hartlepool who gave some useful equipment too, including a comprehensive pyrography set. The model railway will involve similar generosity too from in and out of the Shed.

We have the new cancer session postcards and 4 mugs to use