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This has been a busy week at the shed; at the regional shed meeting; in the garden and today up at the turbine House at Harlaw reservoir where we are just completing a fairly major revamping of the control system and electrical layout. Our service engineers (required to maintain our insurance) were complaining about the amount of ‘extra stuff’ we had in the control cabinet so as part of the reprogramming and general upgrading we undertook to install a new cabinet, a frame for UPS and some general housekeeping. We’re getting there but it’s no fun climbing back up the hill to get a tool you left in the car!
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Firstly I should mention the great shed morning out we had at Currie Primary last Friday with bacon rolls, songs from the children and a tour around their playgrounds while they played or showed us all the activities they get up to with the things we have made for them.
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On Monday at the shed there was a good turnout, I did not take the metal sheets across as I was a bit under the weather. A covid test proved negative but I kept a low profile while others got on with various jobs and projects. It meant I missed the Meeting Place get together at lunchtime with maestro Jan providing the music which I beleive went down very well. Tuesday was the Shed regional meeting held this time at the Leith Men’s Shed. It was very informative regarding the Armadale fire but proved difficult to get a good idea of what other sheds were up to as Tim green had decided, but had not told anyone that henceforth the meetings were going to be topic orientated and today it was on sustainability. I guess it’s a SMSA bandwagon at present to keep funding but I’m afraid I switched off when hearing about calculators on how many tons of CO2 you can save especially as we recycle everything anyway. Armadale I think were spot on when they said the most important sustainability for each shed is to stay in existence! Alastair and Stewart were also there so they will maybe give you a less biased view of this! Leith Shed is big, does not have many more members than us on any one day but have different days for music, woodwork , tai-chi, etc. etc, (see their website) and a trustee meeting day also. They have to sell things to make money to pay bills and rent which brings its own issues and they charge a £40.00 a year membership. Other sheds are similar to ours, have a good relationship with their landlord as have we and there are a few in between who have a mixture of both aspects.
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The main part for me was the briefing from Armadale on the disastrous fire they had, actually while in the shed but fortunately no one was hurt. It was started by a dust extraction unit basically igniting and the fire spread very quickly. I understand they tried to put it out but one fire extinguished was not enough and was all they had. There are aspects of this our trustees need to discuss regarding our insurance but I think we are covered for the main one which is Trustee Indemnity, if we are not we very soon will be whatever the cost! The other is reinstatement costs which I don’t think we are covered for as reinstatement is not just the replacement value it is all the clearing up and remedial work necessary before replacement can take place. Lastly, for now, we will have to tighten up on our attendance and leaving sheets. So starting from tomorrow everyone attending must sign in and sign out with times so that checks on people can be made as necessary and we will have to have a responsible person on each day to open and close so that we are sure there is no-one on the premises. As I’ve just sprung this on everyone I’ll do it tomorrow but all of you must sign in at the SHED and sign out at the SHED (not the hall) and this will apply on each day the shed is open. Stewart at this stage I’ll leave it to you where we have the kitty for tea/coffee monies.
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Trustees, we will have to have a short meeting sometime before the AGM just to check on some aspects of how we conduct ourselves and yes, how we will police health and safety going forward because if we don’t have a plan it could get messy if something untoward happens.
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That’s it for this week, time for tea. Take care everyone, hope to see some of you tomorrow.
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