Cancellation of Opening Ceremony

After 5 years of hard work and ultimately success, The Bugwe regret to have to publish the following announcement from our Chairman:


Dear Members and Supporters of Banchory and District Men’s Shed,

Following the cancellation because of the Coronavirus precautions of the Aberdeenshire Wellbeing Festival with which it was timed to coincide, we regret to announce that the Banchory and District Men’s Shed’s Opening Ceremony on 19 May is also cancelled.

The Men’s Shed is closed for weekly meetings and all other activities until further notice.

Thank you for all your support during our long journey towards completion of our premises at Legion Scotland.  We look forward to welcoming you there when the emergency is over.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Evans

Chairman
Banchory and District Men’s Shed

A message from the Banchory Legion Chairman

We are delighted to have received the following message from Alistair Black:


Banchory Men’s Shed

It is a pleasure and delight to now see the Banchory Men’s Shed open for business at Legion Scotland’s Banchory Branch and Club building, at Ramsay Road, Banchory.  The organisers have endured a long hard struggle to finally reach this point and they deserve a huge accolade for what they have achieved.  It is also the culmination of an idea mooted back in late 2015 and as covered in the Legion Scotland Today magazine.

I am delighted for two reasons.  Firstly, the area they now occupy needed to be used constructively, usefully and in sympathy with the building.  But secondly and more importantly, the values of the Men’s Shed movement mirror those of the Legion, that is, to provide facilities where men young and old can go and enjoy social connections, build friendships, share skills and knowledge, and of course create a lot of laughter.

The Legion works along the same lines as the Men’s Shed in that we are responsible for enhancing the wellbeing and comradeship of our members.  Similarly, where the Legion can, we will get involved in community projects even though we are more geared to the serving the ex-service community.

The Banchory Men’s Shed is always looking to boost their membership and they are very much hoping that as well as civilian members they will attract ex-service personnel.  So if as an ex-serviceman you feel you can help, or feel you need help, or you would just like to converse with like-minded people, then go along and see what it is all about.  It costs nothing and could quite easily be a life changing experience for some of you.

Alistair Black

Legion Scotland Branch/Club Chairman


 

March Business Meeting – Thursday 12th March

Reminder of our bi-monthly Business Meeting this Thursday. All members welcome. The agenda is largely around what we are going to do with the facility now we are up and running. Some of them are old ideas, some new.

Non-members interested are also welcome, i.e. anyone interested in joining or other non-members. (Only members can vote).

The meeting is at:

Banchory Men’s Shed new premises

beneath the British Legion Scotland

Ramsay Road, Banchory

Thursday  12th March at 2:00 p.m.

Chairs ready for the meeting...

Chairs ready for the meeting…


Mission Impossible Possible

After nearly 5 years, since 16th April 2015, we finally have proper premises for the Banchory Men’s Shed.  It was all going to be so easy, but more on that another time.

Completion of the build on 7th February left us with a social area echoing to the sound of a concrete floor, but only 2 weeks later, on Monday 24th February, we had ourselves a carpet too, with walls all painted between-times by a bunch of Shedders.

We can now set about laying out the Workshop room as a workshop rather than for rather cramped dual purposes, and can look at what we need in the social area too. Whilst opening times will remain for the moment at 10:30-12:00 every Tuesday, it may not be long before we start opening up at other times.

A big event on the horizon is an Official Opening which will be on

Tuesday 19th May 2020 at 10:30 a.m.

Full details in due course.

At this point we would like to thank again everyone involved in bringing our Shed to fruition, with key external parties being Gerry and Adam Robb of Gerry Robb Architectural Services, Bruce McCombie and his crew, Duncans of Banchory, and of course Craig, Alastair and co. in the Banchory Legion, not forgetting Susie for the refreshments which kept us going!  Too many thanks to list Shed members, but you know who you are.

Our membership has been growing steadily since we opened the Phase 1 Workshop and now we have full premises we expect further growth.

In financial terms, we managed to bring in the Banchory Men’s Shed for a total of around £76,000 all-in (Phases 1 and 2), compared to a first estimate back in 2015 of upwards of £120,000 plus the VAT.  This is a creditable performance by all concerned.  Nevertheless, we did run into some issues, notably finding a granite formation protruding into where the floor needed to be, needing some significant rock-breaking by Bruce’s team, and hence we went over even our budget contingency.  We have consumed all grant monies and our bank reserves and are now of the order of £2,000 short once all invoices are in.  If you would like to help, please see our Funding page.  Many thanks.