John working overtime to find new Men’s Shed
Plans for a group to provide a space for collaboration and activity are afoot in Renfrew.
John Carty has set out to create Renfrew Men’s Shed in the hope of offering something back to the community.
A men’s shed is a voluntary charitable organisation and social space for guys with time on their hands, to come together to socialise and carry out a range of purposeful activities chosen by the shedders for themselves or for their local community.
John, a recently retired teacher, said: “I feel I’ve got skills to offer that I can put back into the community. I’ve always done voluntary work and charity fundraising and I feel I’ve got more to do in my retirement.”
He’s searching for a steering committee to look into setting up a premises to get the initiative up and running.
John explained: “We’ve got an office space but we don’t yet have a workspace as such but hopefully we will do soon. I’m looking immediately for people with experience to bounce ideas around and thereafter I’ll be looking for members to join and work on new projects.
“I was going to start with model making and a repair shop and guitar repairs, that sort of thing.
“Eventually we would want to do community projects, woodwork, larger scale projects for schools, playgrounds and parks and stuff like that.”
John is looking for a larger premises for the Men’s Shed to operate from. He’s received support from the Renfrew Development Trust in his planning for the project.
Those looking to get involved with the project can email John at jcarty@techie.com
The Scottish Men’s Shed Association (SMSA) recently received a much-needed funding boost from National Lottery
Community Fund’s Awards for All Scotland programme.
The member-led national association plans to implement a new customer relations management database interlinked with an upgraded website to maintain records securely online – for its 3,200+ membership and 202 Men’s Sheds across Scotland.
This would enable improved recording and monitoring to feed into the charity’s long-term development plans and support delivery.
SMSA chief executive officer Jason Schroeder said: “On average, we are receiving a staggering 40 new individual members each month to this movement which is remarkable.
“However, the current manual administrative processes are profoundly impacting on the time of the SMSA team. We plan to simplify our systems for joining the association but also for our popular ‘Find a Shed’ map which receives thousands of hits each month and make things much easier to find in our online ‘onestop shop’ members’ portal.
“Through this second award from the National Lottery Community Fund Scotland, we will be able to easier maintain data safely and securely and be able to report on its immense success and impact more efficiently – to support the nation’s shed volunteers.”