Secretary’s Report, 2015

Dear Members                                      

We have just held our 4th AGM and the minutes  have been ‘posted’ to all members who have an email address.

Time has flown since the Hume Men’s Shed (Sunbury) was first started in October 2010 with the membership growing each year. We now have over 80 members with new applications being discussed at each monthly committee meeting.

As a result of this success the committee is looking to expand the shed by at least half again in area to cope with the growing demand for space. Dialogue has been opened with all three levels of government to assist in this endeavour.

We are now open 5 days per week which is also an indication of the need and value the shed is to the local community. The skills base within the membership is extensive and there does not seem to be any project we are approached to do that cannot be done.

As well as a Web Master (the technical person behind our web site) we now have a web site administrator who is responsible for the day to day, week to week running of the site. The administrator will chase up content to upload on a regular basis as well as getting behind a camera himself, and seconding others, to produce videos and pictures that will be of interest not only to our own membership but to other sheds throughout the country.  It would also be interesting to post details of the many projects we have already completed since we started.

Over to you Administrator!

 Happy Shedding.

John Hunter

Presidents Report July 2015

Presidents Report, 2014/15

What a great year it’s been for the Shed, with daily attendances now in the low 30’s! Fantastic!

All visitors arriving on site are most impressed by our facilities, more so when informed that it was all achieved by our Sheddies! We seem to be the envy of most Victorian Sheds. Well done those blokes, give yourselves a pat on the back.

Therefore in order to cope with increasing popularity of our Shed and increasing lack of space for our Sheddies to work on their various projects Tom Blight has agreed to open the Shed on Tuesday mornings and be the Duty Co-ordinator.      Thanks Tom.

Also Kevin Wood, our resident “Sparkie” has agreed to offer his services as a Duty Co-ordinator as required, well done Kevin. This helps reduce our workload in that area.

Trevor Dunn, Frank Zambello, Kevin Wood have been added to those approved to maintain our machinery items.

It appears to me that Barrie’s garden has been underutilized during the year, with a lot of produce going to seed instead of being picked and enjoyed by our Sheddies so take time to re-acquaint yourselves with Barrie’s veggie patch.

The past year has been a very busy one for the Committee of Management team, doing all the necessary backroom admin stuff that keeps the Shed operational.

My thanks and deep appreciation goes to all on the Committee for a successful year.

First and foremost thanks go to the Terrific Trio of Mike Newman, Stan Rasa, and Norm Ripp, who undertake the vast majority of the necessary admin work for Membership, Grants Applications, Shed finances, letter writing, answering Emails and enquires, and maintaining cordial relations with various government departments, Hume City Council, and the Private business sector.

Thanks also to Ian Lupson for providing guidance to my Presidential efforts.

To Kevin Swaffield, Rod Jackson, and John Staines for continuing the often unpopular job of  Occ Health and Safety Officers.

To Tom Blight and John Staines for providing assistance as required during the year as Duty Co-ordinators and Welfare Officers.

To John Hunter for being Minute Secretary when needed and pursuing funding sources for our increasingly urgent Shed extensions.

To Peter Wilkinson for volunteering to be our Projects Co-ordinator to keep an administrative eye on our numerous projects, and valuable leadership organising and supervising the many off-site community projects we undertake—so please everyone fill out those pesky Project sheets as they provide valuable information for Grants Applications and Community projects we complete.

And finally thank you to all our Sheddies for the effort required to complete the many projects that earn some dollars to keep our excellent Shed open, also particularly to those Sheddies who time and again volunteer to man our regular Bunnings sausage sizzles. You few are the people who do the most to provide a regular income that enables us to keep the Sheds doors open month after month.

As can be seen by my long-winded report it takes a heck of a lot of goodwill and effort to maintain what must be one of the most successful Sheds in Victoria.

It can only get better!

Dieter Jankovic

President 2014/15