Shed report to Committee November 2018
The writer has been absent from the shed through part of October and November so there may well be some omissions in this report.
General The shed is now well “Set up for business” although we are making constant changes to our layout as more projects and equipment arrive.
Projects (Outside)
Ruru (Morepork) apartments This project is now ready to run.
Bait tunnels for Brook Sanctuary Production still continues on this project with the production/assembly jigs allowing any member with spare time to continue production. As long as the plywood and core flute keep coming we will pump them out. Dave Garnett from the sanctuary made a presentation to the “Sheddies” on progress at the sanctuary.
Angel Boxes Design and liaison work still continues on this project. Richard and the team met with the Nelson Hospital and contact has been established with a local funeral director to finalize details of this very worthwhile project.
Iron Duke Sea Scout Group boat refurbishment Under Peter and Gavin’s leadership the first “Sunburst” sailing dinghy refurbishment was completed in time for a Southern regatta. This intrepid pair now have two more Sunbursts to refurbish. This project is a little like the Brook project in that it is very easy to find work to do on the boats to keep our rapidly increasing membership busy.
30 foot cutter tiller Brett aided by master boat builder Gavin replaced the tiller on one of the ex-Outward bound cutters.
Memorial Prize for Nelson College This “Peter Lamb” trophy project is now complete. Joy (the late Peter Lambs sister) made a generous donation and provided a delicious ginger slice for morning tea.
Victory Community Centre This project has been completed by “Skid” and Denis.
Top of Trafalgar Street Project This street game (for the City Council) project has now been completed as far as the current budget allowed. As funds become available we may have more involvement.
Hospice Tree Plaque project This project involves the shed providing stakes and plaque platforms to label sponsored native trees. We are still at the design stage with Reg, ZD, Richard and Mark involved in the design/liaison process.
Marsden Valley Park Community Notice Board Project Mark Cox is following up this project. The community has funds available and so the design can be finalized and construction started.
Environment Centre table project This project is now complete and ready to be collected.
Outdoor seating at Nelson Intermediate School This project was one of the first to come through the “Community Assist” link from our website. Two students from NIS are liaising with us and this project should start soon.
Loaves and Fishes shelving This worthy project is soon to be completed.
Bunk Beds refurbish for Salvation Army John (Rembrandt) completed a refurbishment and repaint on this project. A welcome cake was provided at morning tea as part payment.
Projects (in-house)
Open day We had a very successful open day in October a highlight of which was the unveiling of Shane and Cairo’s beautiful carving over the main entrance.
AGM The AGM was held on the 24th of November with the following positions filled. Chair Philip Chapman Deputy Chair Wayne Logan Secretary Graeme O’brien Treasurer Peter Shelton Committee Gavin Cook Zack Domike Cairo Hemi Shane Preston Adrian Falkner
Work Box This project has been lined out, an insulated ceiling fitted and the whole interior fully painted out by quite a team of members lead by Denis. John Rominger has made the most magnificent laminated bench tops and a considerable quantity of readymade storage systems have been supplied by Mitre 10. The next stage will be to install the electrical wiring and power tools.
Dust Extractor A new dust extraction system has been fitted in the joinery shop
Metal Lathe Quick Change Tool Post This has now been fitted up and tested by Willem and is in operation.
Trailer Donation Colin has completed all the engineering work and Mike has wired up the tail lights. It is now registered and all that is required is a WOF.
Fabrication shop partitions Colin and Robert are fitting up partitions to shield other personnel from typical fabrication shop hazards.
The Great Ozito lottery The Ozito power tool company generously offered a range of their products to Menzshed NewZealand wide. They supplied a list of available tools and the object was to place the tools that we would like in order of preference. The bottom line was that we were allocated a concrete mixer! Only catch was it was in the North Island and would cost over $300 dollars to have it freighted to Nelson. “Leave it to me” said Denis “I will have a chat with Mainfreight”. Result, Main Freight will get it to us for nothing! All we need now is a concrete project!
The Crowe Horwath Clean out Accountancy firm Crowe Horwath had a large quantity of office furniture and fittings which was surplus to requirements. They offered us the task of getting rid of it and so in conjunction with the Environment Centre Reg, Denis,Tony, Ron, Mark and Wayne preceded with the project. At the time of writing (Tuesday) the clean out was well underway and should be completed by Thursday 13th Dec. We now have quite a stock of office furniture and fittings which will be most useful for bench/shelf construction etc.
Benches/joinery shop redesign As more equipment is installed in the joinery shop a minor redesign and movement of some equipment will be required. Mark and Richard are looking into this so watch this space.
Membership We now have over sixty members on our new sign up format with well over twenty signing in each Tuesday and Thursday! We have a tiger by the tail! Very important that we have a variety of work for everyone and we must be vigilant with safety.
Sunday opening Al, Graeme, Peter and Zac have been opening on Sundays which has been a great success due to the high foot and cycle traffic past our front door. We have gained several new members due to this initiative and some nice PR. Al volunteered to get an old slot car set going for a young boy which was a great gesture. One person who dropped by was Rudi who runs Action Engineering. He offered us on long term loan a power hacksaw which will be a real boost to the fabrication section.
Safety Graeme is continuing efficiently with his safety introductions but with increasing numbers in the shed we must look after each other safety wise. Each machine has a list of names on it indicating those who are competent in that machine’s use and that list must be adhered to.
Looking Ahead On The 20th Dec we will have our Christmas Party at 12pm at the shed.
As membership increases we need to consider ways to spread the workload across all members. A possible option would be to open three days per week as well as Sunday and then have a roster of Supervisors and “Meet/greet” persons. To this end we are asking for expressions of interest from members to help out in this area.
Open Times Update: In addition to opening at 9o’clock Tuesday and Thursday we will, from the 25th November, be opening on Sundays from 10o’clock.
New Committee: At the recent AGM a new committee was duly elected.
