WAMSA – Narrogin Shed



TO ESTABISH AND SUSTAIN THE NARROGIN MEN’S SHED

Western Australian Men’s Shed Conference

3 & 4 th October 2012

Presented by John McDougall – Chairman

Management Group of Narrogin Mensheds Inc.

Beginnings: The Establishment:

Just before I kick off, I would like to point out that a lot of what I am going to speak about is covered in our shed display.

In the beginning the Narrogin Menshed suffered two failed attempts – basically

caused by well-meaning people not communicating with the target group – older men

in the community.

One attempt was point of pyramid exercise – where she tried to build from the point

down.

No grassroots consultation and all that stuff.

The third attempt – from bottom up. AND IT HAS WORKED…

Let me tell you why -

An old mate of mine Alan Ness known as “Happy” (hence the name of our shed –

Happy Ness) and a small group of blokes decided they wanted a shed.

Allan and his mates identified a shed.

Decided they needed a benefactor and approached the “Lions Club

of Narrogin”.

Two important points already;

1. grassroots passion for something to happen, and a group of men who were

prepared to give it a go.

2. Identified a benefactor – in our case the Lions Club of Narrogin.

It might well be a Rotary Club, the Lions Club, a Church group or even the Local

Authority. Be wary of those organisations that come with strings attached.

• You have to have someone to LOVE YOU in our case it was the Lions Club

of Narrogin.

• Who have the manpower, a network and a little bit of money (I am one of

those Lions). If you think this smells like an ‘inside job’ you are right..

• We then went out to engage with the local community.

• We found that if you really passionate about it – you CAN sell it”

and we did.

• We have had phenomenal support from local businesses and community

members– who donated building materials, expertise, tools and workshop

equipment, however very little actual money was donated.

Don’t be frightened to ask – we were initially surprised at how generous people

were prepared to be.

GENEROSITY: Now a couple of examples:

• One of our young electrical contractor’s supplied all the equipment and

rewired our shed for NO CHARGE. He just requested a couple of “wire-pullers” to

give him a hand.

The contracted price would be somewhere between $3-$4000.

• We also have a family of brothers who are building contractors in our town,

whose generosity knows no bounds. We have mounted a number of expeditions into

their yard for building supplies – all at no charge of course, including a brand-new

half glass door that we “needed” (and that is a story in itself)

– We have many other examples of similar generosity

• This sort of community commitment is certainly alive and well in the

country.

• If you receive this good community support show appreciation – thank you

cards and certificates of appreciation should be the norm not the exception.

Invite them to inspect their contributions, include them in social events.

• Erect a large prominent Honour Board and be careful not leave anybody out

• For us this sort of recognition has paid dividends over and over.

GRANTS:

• We have had no construction grants.

• We have had knock-backs from Lotteryswest and Royalties for Regions. We

were told that our plans were too grandiose and we wanted too much money.

• My boys have noted that applications similar to ours have since

been funded.

SETBACKS: And we have had a few:

• We have had our shed site condemned as a Contaminated Site. Our shed is

situated on an old Gun Club – apparently lead was the problem and we were shut

off the site for eight weeks.

Within that time we managed to have the exclusion overturned and the issue

resolved.

That is another story for another day.

• Due to the delay this caused our official opening had to be postponed.

And in the meantime our real disappointment was that we lost “old happy” –

Allan “Happy-Ness” before we could officially open our shed which eventually

happened in February 2008.

SHED OPENING:

• We kicked off with a fully operational metal shed and clubrooms. We have

found the clubroom to be the most important part of our shed complex – this where

we spend most of our time.

HAND-OVER:

• After a settling in period - the Lions Club of Narrogin decided to hand over

the Assets and Management of the shed to the Narrogin Mensheds Incorporated,

we have been powering on ever since.

• We have been able to secure a small grant from Veterans Affairs to assist in

obtaining some heavy workshop equipment.

• We have not had any outside financial help from anybody.

– We do receive in-kind donations.

• All of our running costs and expansion has been financed by the ‘toil of the

boys’ from The Narrogin Menshed

How do we do this? With jobs like:

• Restoration of Main Roads historical machinery display

• Constructing all of the Town Entrance statements on behalf of the Town of Narrogin (4)

• Refurbished the pens and equipment at the Stud Merino Breeders Selling Centre

• Built a commercial kitchen at the same venue to facilitate catering

• Sourced and cut tonnes and tonnes of firewood. 12.5 tonne – this year

• Refurbishing park benches/ painting and refurbishing sports equipment (back-boards etc)

• All done for an appropriate donation of course!

To Be Successful: Why Are We?

• The Narrogin Menshed is a women free environment.

The ‘girls’ are only welcome by invitation – with a chocolate cake of course!

• But having said that “we have a large group of women who are very supportive

and are understanding of the Men’s Shed ethos and they unconditionally supports us.

• There needs to be group activities – bus trips away, visiting other sheds.

More recently a bus trip to the Pearce Air-show, we have been to the Dardanup

Heritage Park, had a weekend in Albany (looking at restored guns) and so on

• We do allow women to join us if there are spare seats and it is ok by the guys

INSURANCE:

• Insurance – be properly insured. We use the local Broker, a guy in the

community but AMSA also offer a good package.

EXPANSION:

• All planned expansion needs to be accepted by the club and costed out

properly before anything happens.

• You need to have a good understanding of where the funds are going to come

from and how are you going to secure them

• Be realistic about your ability to raise funds “cut the cloth to suit”. If you

have only 30 members don’t go out there looking for $2 million.

• But a word of advice: Be careful what you wish for – in activities and

expansion. Grandiose plans can be your undoing…. We in Narrogin have had a

couple of rethinks. The plans for the big mega-shed are gone etc. etc. “Cut the cloth”

GOVERNANCE:

• It is imperative that you have a strong management group with an executive so

good decisions are made. Don’t let it be just happenings.

• You must have good Governance – there are many sheds not operating

properly around the state. If you use outside funding you must have proper

governance. If you are not up to scratch you will be found out.

• Look out for the 5-7 year itch – my shed is going through a period of

instability right now– with a certain amount of conflict between the various groups of membership.

We have three distinct groups. They are:

1. There are the original starter-up group

2. Soon after guys

3. New boys on the block.

All believe their needs and ideals are more important than the other group.

There are those who just want to enjoy things as they are.

There are others who want to reinvent the wheel or bothering to understand what

has gone before.

• Have provision in your constitution to deal with all contingencies – don’t

think it won’t happen to you! Unfortunately it just might…

It has happened to us in Narrogin where we have had to deal with more than one

sticky incident.

I just have this horrible feeling that I might be getting home to help the shed sort out

another one.

We do have the ability in our constitution and rules of engagement to deal with it.

GOING FORWARD:

• We put together programs and determine who is going to do what.

• We are strong on delegation – involve as many members of your shed as

possible – we have outside of the usual executive, a catering officer, membership

officer, metal-shed Manager, wood-shed manager, social fund manager and even one

bloke just to put the bin out.

For this all to happen you need long term plans including costings

• It is very important that you budget and know the cost of running your shed

from year to year.

• We have learnt to appreciate the value of international currency especially

amongst our “Tradies”

AND WINDING UP:

The unofficial motto of my shed is “if you sit around and wait for someone

else to make it happen – it never does.”

Basically if you have the passion, the commitment and the will you can

make it work…..

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