What's happening in the Shed?
Wells-next-the-Sea Men's Shed
A small but active group of our members have taken up cycling and go for ride outs a couple of times a week. Everyone is welcome. This Group are keen to grow their numbers and have been testing the Tandem which hopefully will be used to take disabled riders around Holkham and further afield. Mark and Richard have given it a good service, so its ready to go ......
0 Comments
Wells Mens Shed AGM - 19th May 2021 - 10.30am - 12 noon
Wells Community Hospital Agenda
The Wells Mens Shed will hold its AGM on Wednesday May 19th 2021 from 10.30am to 12 noon at the Wells Community Hospital Trust. This is open meeting and anyone interested in learning more about the Shed are most welcome.
As you can see a few Shedders (Socially distanced!) met at the Shed to discuss reopening after Lockdown. We have decided to reopen on Wednesdays at the usual time, for members and prospective members too. We have also agreed a one way system with sanitiser stations throughout the portakabin and we will work outdoors when we can. We are also taking guidance from the UK Mens Shed Association regarding best practice.
First job will be a general clean up before we begin the paint job on the Sea Container Metal Workshop. Its nice to be back! Norfolk County Council have recently upgraded and replaced their stock of Laptop PCs and kindly offered these old Laptops to the Norfolk Mens Shed Network. Working with our Facilitator Jonny the Wells Mens Shed has been allocated 3 laptops. As widely reported in the news there has been a drive to provide laptops for home schooling for those families who do not have laptops or internet connections. We are pleased to say that these laptops are surplus to requirements as all laptops for home schooling in Norfolk has been accommodated so there are no conflicts thankfully.
So what will the Wells Mens Shed be doing with the laptops? The laptops are installed with Microsoft Office and good to go. There are a number of potential uses, not least to manage our administration documents. This includes minutes of meetings, membership records, accounting records, asset register and the like. However, there is a need to introduce a number of our members to the world of the Internet, email and social media and of course apps like YouTube - all geared to enriching their knowledge and wellbeing. We are fortunate to have a resource within our group to manage the the basic training and when restrictions allow we can begin the process. Although we do not have mains electricity at the Shed we do have Wi-Fi so we will be able to access the internet and all that it offers. So if any budding techies are out there and would like to get involved please get in touch. Each month news items of developments regarding the Wells Mens Shed are printed in the columns of our local community magazine - The Quay. The circulation of The Quay is about 1500 but confined to homes and businesses around the Town. So we have decided to repeat our copy here to reach a wider audience and those Shedders who live in the surrounding villages. Back issues are viewable on The Quays website - www.quaypublishing.co.uk. We aim to make this a regular feature and here is the Wells Mens Shed copy from the latest Quay issue, enjoy:
Copy for The Quay Jan 2021 At first blush we thought there would be little to report about the Wells Mens Shed this past month, since we closed shop over the festive period and cancelled all meetings. However, as they say you don’t know what happens behind closed doors! Well some enterprising Shedders have been busy researching solutions for renewable energy, in particular solar energy. The significance here is that we have no mains electricity at the Shed, instead relying on the cordless power tools kindly provided by the Central England Co-operative Community Fund, these supplement our traditional hand held tools for our projects. Generating our own electricity off grid through renewables has been a long term goal. The challenge though is to raise sufficient funds to purchase the equipment to cover the installation. We have received quotations from various industry experts and will now apply for funding. After all that has happened it would be nice to kick start the new year with some positive developments. Ambitious but we hope before 2021 is out we will have mains electricity and our new metalwork shop fully operational. A number of people have expressed their interest in joining the Mens Shed when we have electricity and a metalwork shop so please come forward and get in touch and help us set this up. We have been pleased to have opened exploratory talks with Sarah Peberday, General Manager at the Wells Community Hospital and her team about how we can collaborate on community projects. There are a number of creative ideas on the table but they will have to wait until the Covid landscape changes before we can safely proceed. Similarly we are exploring the prospect of servicing some cycles at the Alderman Peel High School, but again timing is an issue. So, although on site has, and will remain limited, other initiatives are going on behind the scenes. As always, if you would like more information please visit us at http:www.wellsnexttheseamensshed.weebly.com , or email us at [email protected] Some of our members were pleased to erect three ceramic panels on the exterior walls of the Wells Health Centre. Inspired by our beach, Kate Allsop of the Wells Pottery Group produced these stunning ceramics called "Where sand meets sea" A real tonic and certainly cheers up the visitors to the Health Centre. Great work Kate and if you would like to get in touch with Kate she can reached on 07825647545.
The Wells Mens Shed Committee have recently met to carry out a Covid risk assessment prior to reopening the Shed following lockdown. It has been agreed we will not be open to visitors for the time being and this will be under regular review. It has also been decided to suspend our mobile telephone until the landscape changes. So the principle method of contacting the Shedders is via the contact page on this website or email us at [email protected]
Our membership remains open and we would welcome new members so please get in touch. Take care out there and stay safe and sane! Although the Wells Mens Shed has been closed during the lockdown it doesn’t mean our Shedders have been hanging up their tools. One of our Shedders has made a near neighbour a Picket Fence for their raised vegetable garden, a useful way of keeping the dog from digging up the produce! Recycling several old pallets and some timber and arranging the pickets in a ‘perfectly socially distanced’ manner looks the part. Great job but the dog might not agree!
The Shed awakens from the rude interruption that was Covid. We are not relaxing our guard, on the contrary, we are preparing to reopen the Shed following a full Risk Assessment. Taking care will be central to us opening the Shed and constant monitoring of our practices will be in place so that adjustments can be made if and when required.
However, the big news is that we have kindly been donated a 20ft Shipping Container which we plan to fit out as a metalwork shop. The Container has kindly been donated by major East of England Contractor, the R G Carter Group. Supporting local communities is a key part of the values of the Carter Group and the Shedders are truly grateful for this critical addition to the Shed, which almost doubles our work space. Work will now begin on the refit. A big thank you to the Carter Group for your generous support and we look forward to making full use of the Container. |
Men's Shed Open Meetings & Opening Hours Archives
March 2024
Categories |