Shed Shout Out! - May 2025

Our 2025 AGM marked 10 years since the idea of a Men’s Shed turned into a reality for Winslow and we remain indebted to our founding Shedders for finding premises, getting the necessary support and for setting the ball rolling. A key member of the team was Dave Saunders who has decided that now is the right time to step down as our Chairman. Although Dave was unable to attend the AGM it did provide a suitable occasion to officially record our gratitude for all that he has done to establish MISW as a valued part of the Winslow community. Tim Elderton steps into Dave’s shoes and our Shed Committee is bolstered with the addition of volunteers Neil Udall and Tony Stopp. The next few years will involve us moving, setting up in new premises and, no doubt, getting back up to speed so new energy and fresh ideas will be essential – welcome aboard chaps!

Our Treasurer was able to report healthy balances for the year and some carefully managed reserves to provide confidence as we face an uncertain future but we are not a ‘fund-raising’ operation – as such. A donation is invited for the jobs that we do and, for community projects, we always try to find the necessary funding ourselves. In a nutshell, we keep busy, people are generous and our overheads are low. I think we surprised ourselves with a simple calculation. We open for 100 sessions per year, average attendance these days is about 15 per session and an average stay is about 3 hours. That adds up to 4,500 hours or, to put it another way, MISW is entirely self-sufficient and provides 4,500 hours of social inclusion opportunity, per year, to men in our community. We are working towards being self-sufficient in our move too.

Not too 'Ruff!'!....

Brian has been busy again on the lathe and 'turned' these out.

'Check' this out!

Andrew has also been hard at work starting his Chess Board. Nice one 'Mate'!