Saturday 2nd November 2019, the official opening of the Banchory Men’s Shed.  After much work over several years by a lot of people, we finally got there, with the opening of the Phase 1 Workshop section.

Firstly, many thanks to all those who have input to the fruition of the Banchory Men’s Shed – the Board of Trustees all the way from from 2015, all the members – present and those sadly passed – the Banchory Legion Scotland, all the donors and supporters from all walks of life, the Scottish Men’s Shed Association, and Bruce McCombie Builders.

Following our opening day, and with the Phase 1 area organised into a combined social area and workshop (until Phase 2 is complete), we held our first social in our new premises on the following Tuesday, with an already increased turn-out.

Here are a few photos of this momentous occasion!

We are hoping to hear imminently about the commencement of the Phase 2 build (see here for how the phasing works) and will update you as soon as things are confirmed.

An update on Wednesday 7th August.

Phase 1 Premises progress

Things were going well with the build up to the point of trying to get the fireproofing done, back in June/July.  The shell of our Shed had exposed metal beams which needed fireproofing to meet current Building Regulations, and that’s where the delay started and why things have seemed a bit quiet.  However, after some time and difficulty we managed to get a quote from Holemasters who completed the fireproofing yesterday, 6th Aug.  They clad over and sealed the beams, to the necessary fire resistant spec., as can be seen in the photos below.

Only two things remain before we can start moving in – painting and electrics – more below…

Call for Hands – Painting Session – THIS Friday 9th, Saturday 10th August

With the fireproofing finished we can now paint the room with top coat to cover up the “multi-coloured pastel” 😉 base coat, and Buildbase have very kindly donated us the paint to complete this.  We’ll have two sessions, both starting at 9 a.m., on Friday and if necessary Saturday, to complete everything ready for the final electrics work.

If you can come along and help, please do – the more hands the quicker.

Once the electrics are done we can finally MOVE IN !!

Phase 2 Funding Boost

On the 29th July, we heard that our application to The Robertson Trust was successful and they have awarded us the sum of £7,000 towards the funds required to complete Phase 2.   Phase 2 will see us building to the left of the Phase 1 room, thereby more than tripling the total floor area.

We are very grateful to the Robertson Trust for this award which sees us reach 82% of our funding requirement for Phase 2 and also indebted to Paul Evans who has been the driving engine of our fundraising.  Only £10,000 to go 🙂

The Banchory Men’s Shed is pleased to announce that our funding drive continues very successfully with the latest grant, this time from Aberdeenshire Council’s Marr Area Committee.  The sum of up to £4,445 would in full take the total allocated to our Phase 2 build (see here) to £39,945. This leaves just over £17,000 left to find. Our sincere thanks to the Marr Area Committee for expressing their support in such a solid manner.

With the focus on the building of our shed itself, we should remember, this is the view from our Shed.  Nice to sit out and look at, when the weather plays ball:

The last couple of weeks have been busy.

AGM

We held our 2019 AGM last Thursday, where the Chairman confirmed our good financial position and listed a number of achievements over the year:

• The Lease with the Legion was signed
• We were able to build up sufficient funds for Phase 1
• The contract was awarded and we started building work on Phase 1
• We have already made considerable progress towards Phase 2 funds with grants totalling £35,500 within an estimated budget of around £57,000 – that is, only about £20,000 left to go.  (For more details on how Phases 1 and 2 are defined see here.)
• Further funding applications are under way
• Our weekly social meetings continue, some with guest speakers in 2018/2019
• We have had a number of tool sales coinciding with the Legion’s Book/Car Boot sales
• We have donated surplus items to Scouts and surplus vouchers to the Food Bank

We had a few changes in Trustees, and the new list can be seen here, and we have also had a number of new members joining us over the last couple of months. Welcome.

Building Update

The fitting-out stage is now in progress, with the Electrical work being started today, Tuesday 18th June.  In a few days’ time we shall have a working electrical feed of our own, plug points and full lighting.  The only work left on the fabric will be to fireproof the steel beams, and complete final painting.  We will then move on and install whatever equipment and facilities we want. And on that point…

What do we want in the Phase 1 Shed?

In last Thursday’s meeting we agreed that although we have not been short on ideas for what we want in the Banchory Men’s Shed, without a building to use it was rather difficult to make these things happen.  Since we are now within weeks of opening, we can again focus on what we want.  An e-mail has gone out to all members asking for their individual ideas. Even if you have not had the email, you can also forward any of your own ideas by e-mail to membership.bms@gmail.com – suggestions are not limited to current members of the Shed; if you are thinking of ever joining you can also let us know what you might like to see.

We will collate these first round responses and then carry out a second round to establish what are the most popular needs, and which of these can be delivered – we need to bear in mind that the Phase 1 room must initially share both social and workshop facilities, and that anything expensive needs to be funded.  The second round will probably take the form of a web questionnaire and we will post details.

Other goings on

We have acquired a trailer.  This was very kindly donated by the family of our late member David Thomson who passed on last year. We will store it at a member’s house and be able to use it for, well, as a trailer.  Huge thanks (again) to the Thomson family.

Visit to Stonehaven Shed.  Several BMS members are visiting the nearly-complete Stonehaven Men’s Shed on Thursday, as both a social visit and to learn anything we can from each other.