Activities and projects undertaken (last updated 26-03-2024)
17-07-2021
Fareham Men's Shed AGM 2021
The top table.
The Shed held its AGM on the 26th July and to be honest it was a little bit of a shock because so many members turned up. It was a truly spirit-lifting morning.
After the roll call all of the normal bits and pieces were gone through. Peter gave a resume of the 18 months that have passed since our last AGM and with deep regret mentioned those members who are no longer with us - John Codling (remember those blowlamp book ends), Raymond Hale who left a couple of years ago, Colin Mansbridge (a great player who has left us with a right conundrum (more about that later) and Brian Matthews who moved to Bristol at the start of the Covid lockdown.
Chris then gave a quick rundown of our finances - luckily we are still very solvent thanks to the efforts of Richard with e-Bay and Rod and his band of merry men who have kept on stripping throughout the crisis.
A major plea from Peter, and I am sure that we all need to take notice and help where we can, for machine tool trainers. If you have the required level of skill on ANY of the workshop tools please step up and offer to share your knowledge with the rest of us. Have a word with one of the trustees and we can take it from there.
Chris H then gave a little talk about the Men's Health Forums and cancer prevention extolling the use of pooh sticks in catching bowel cancer at an early stage. So don't be shy when they come gents. They can make the world of difference to your life - quite literally.
Unfortunately Kevin failed to show but to be fair I am rather pleased that he didn't. He was suffering from something NOT COVID and was in the middle of a course of antibiotics, I saw him the day after and he was rough. Hope he feels better quickly and your absence was totally understandable.
Then to the real nitty-gritty of the meeting - membership donation for 2021. As our normal financial year starts in February and to be honest it's been pretty diabolical this year, it was agreed that membership donations for this year would be asked for on a pro-rata basis. It was agreed, almost unanimously, that this should be reduced to £35.00 to last until the end of February 2022. Two other alternatives were voted on the first being nothing until next year and the second that we ask for £10. They received either very minimal support or no support at all. The £35.00 needs to be paid into our bank account by the end of August 2021. If you would prefer to pay by BACS please contact Chris Hodgson (for now) for bank details.
Andy Wood then described the function and aims of the Men’s Activity Network.
It is the name that Hampshire County Council has adopted for the Step by Step (SBS) approach. SBS has been jointly developed as part of the Interreg2Seas programme and is being tested in the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
SBS is a European-funded partnership of 10 organisations with the aim to improve men’s health and wellbeing, reduce social isolation and increase men’s employment prospects and participation in their communities. The SBS model has been jointly developed by all partners to bring the concept of men’s community Sheds (groups where men meet) to a wider audience across Europe.
The partnership has secured more than €2.6 million of European funding from the EU Interreg 2Seas Programme 2014-2020 (co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund), which will be support this project over the next four years. The project offers free courses to attend on line, produces webinars on various subjects to do with mens health and well being.
All members of FMS have been asked to complete the questionaire that was sent out in a mailchimp. Andy who is a research assistant on health and wellbeing for the Interreg 2 Seas Step By Step project at the university of Chichester will analyse the questionaire and the findings will help future funding. So please gents do your bit by completing the questionaire. we do have hard copies at the shed.
And then the sad departure of Chris, Peter, Milton, Rod and Barry as trustees. Still, no worry because all except Barry (who is not in the best of health) were re-elected along with a new trustee - Cliff Jones who has, after an extremely successful audit, agreed to take over the reins of the accounts from Chris - not too sure if Chris is planning to get his own back by offering to audit the books next year. I am sure that we would all want to thank them and all of the other trustees for all of the work that they have put into keeping the Shed alive through these extremely trying times.
**The Colin Mansbridge Challenge. **
Finally the conundrum set on behalf of Colin Mansbridge.
The Shed owes a lot to Colin Mansbridge, who recently died of cancer. Donations from his funeral, and the contents of his garage have greatly benefited Shed funds.
Colin's garage was full of unsold stock from the business he used to run, and most of this has now gone, but there is one item which doesn't sell – giant stainless steel paddles for mixing plaster.
There are about 100 of them, and it would be a shame to scrap them, so the challenge is to up-cycle them into more desirable objects. They could become garden lights, bird tables, weather vanes, musical instruments – whatever you can imagine. You can incorporate other materials. You can cut them up or use more than one. The only rule is that the completed item must include a recognisable part of the paddle.
There will be a £5 entry fee that goes to Macmillan, and on the day of our coffee morning in September, the finished works will be judged. And if you can bear to part with your masterpiece it will also be auctioned off.
Help yourself to paddles from the box under the stairs, and send me a message to register your interest. I will collect your entry fee in due course.
