Is it nearly August already?

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Hello to all from a dreich Sunday morning.  It seems only yesterday we were having great Spring weather and yet next weekend it will be August.  We’ve not had a bad year for summer weather overall though, with some lovely days and some Proper Rain betweentimes to keep the growing things growing.

Anyway, just to keep you up to date with a couple of things:

The Banchory Men’s Shed Contacts Directory is now in existence and has been e-mailed out.  If you have not received a copy it is because, for privacy purposes, it is only being circulated to those BMS Members already on the directory.  If you want to be added please contact bms.membership@gmail.com and let us know which out of your landline, mobile and e-mail details you are willing to share.

Whilst you may be familiar with and a regular user of Facebook, and follow the Banchory Men’s Shed goings-on there, we know many people do not use Facebook.  Whilst we don’t cover all the everyday goings-on here, we do try to keep you reasonably up-to-date on this blog page.  However – if you would like to hear from us by e-mail whenever we update this blog, you can easily do this.  Look on the right hand side of our home page, and you will see a section “FOLLOW THIS BLOG BY E-MAIL“.  Pop in your e-mail address there and these posts will auto-magically appear in your inbox soon after release.  You can unsubscribe at any time and we absolutely don’t and won’t use these e-mail addresses to send anything else, or pass them on.

SignsAnd by the way, if you’re not on Facebook but want to see the Shed postings anyway, you can do this easily from here – at the bottom of the page is a wee Facebook logo, under the heading “SOCIAL MEDIA”.  Click that and off you’ll go to our Facebook page, which is open and public and does not need a Facebook account.

Over there just now is an explanation for this picture…

Look forward to seeing you at Tuesday’s social (10:30 at the Legion).  With a critical stage being reached on one option, there’s a fair bit of constructive energy buzzing around the premises issue at present, which can only be good to help things move forward.  See you there.

July Monthly Meeting

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Hi everyone.  Just to let you know our regular monthly “Business” meeting is on this coming Thursday 13th July at the Legion at 2 p.m.  All welcome.

To update you briefly from the 2nd May blog post below, things are progressing again with the favoured option for a permanent Banchory Men’s Shed site and premises.  Advice from those more familiar than we are with the planning process has confirmed our own feelings that Aberdeenshire Planning’s likely objections are themselves “unsustainable”.  We are therefore in communication with the Planning department and hope to hear more by the date of the meeting; please come along and find out.    We have also therefore put the alternative back on the back burner.

“In other news” and as some will know, the Lions in Banchory have closed (see here) but our friends at the Banchory Legion Scotland have taken over the well-known and much-loved monthly Book Sale.  The Legion’s book sale will be held as usual on the first Saturday of each month, at the Legion’s own premises in Ramsay Road rather than at the Town Hall.

For the first such sale last Saturday (1st July), the Banchory (and District!) Men’s Shed took the opportunity to hold a tool sale at the same time, which raised some useful funds as well as recycling some tools, old and completely new, back into the community.

Tool_sale

Tool sale at the Legion

Annual Meeting, Premises Update and Premises/Land Appeal

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Men's Shed Logo 180 by 200Greetings to everyone.

The Banchory (and District!) Men’s Shed will be holding our…

  • Annual General Meeting
  • next Thursday, 11th May 2017
  • at 2:00 p.m.
  • at the Banchory Legion in Ramsay Road

Everyone is invited.

The agenda is the usual fare – as follows – but this standard and rather “dry” list of topics conceals an interesting year for everyone, with some recent disappointments but also some further promising developments – more on this below.

  1. Apologies
  2. Minutes of last meeting
  3. Chairman’s report
  4. Treasurers report
  5. Progress of Bancon proposal
  6. Planning permission application progress
  7. Alternative location
  8. Election of officials
  9. Appointment of Trustees
  10. AOB

Do please come along whether you are interested in getting the Shed up and running and into new premises, or whether you would be interested later on once things are fully kicked off.

Without wanting to steal too much thunder from the Chairman’s report or the agenda items covering premises, we have recently had our most promising premises option so far kicked into touch – this time by Aberdeenshire Planning who have firmly advised us that the proposed location would not meet the Planning Guidelines in terms of “sustainability”.  This means that they believe it would be necessary to drive there, rather than being able to walk or cycle – in spite of the location being on the Deeside Way (which, er, facilitates walking and cycling there?), is on the bus route, and is adjacent to other much-used facilities well known to those in the Banchory and District area.  We disagree with their conclusion but now have had yet another possibility raised, possibly more promising, so we will be pursuing that first.

Come and hear more at the Meeting.

In the meantime, it remains the case that we are still looking for a “Shed” premises in or near Banchory and would be very interested to hear from anyone who could help us along.  In summary we need either a building or land which can accommodate social rooms and a workshop, of around 100 sq metres (or more) in all.  If land is offered we have the option on Portacabin style buildings along with a number of transport containers which we were going to fully convert into buildings (with pitched roofs).  If the offer is of a building, barn, shed, whatever, we are able to make adaptations / conversions as required.

It also needs to be affordable and within the means of a small charitable organisation.

So if you have anything available or know of anywhere, please get in touch via our Contacts page.  Thanks!

Spring has Sprung

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Greetings to everyone from the Banchory Shed, on the first day of Summer Time.  So did anyone find out they were late by an hour for something?

Things have been moving along gently on various Shed fronts.

Our membership has been steadily growing with several new members since the turn of the year including two new members whom we were delighted to welcome just this week. A number of folk have also said they will also be joining once the shed premises are finalised (more on this below). We’ve also been involved with some projects out in the community, with the odd splash of paint being thrown around, with more projects planned.

Our Tuesday social meetings have been regularly attended as have been our monthly “business” meetings on the second Thursday of each month.  Attendance at coming Thursday meetings will actually be back to full strength after the “Bridge Crew” return after the winter series of the famous Bridge lessons from Maggie and Bill at the Burnett Arms – which unfortunately clashed with the Thursday afternoon shed meetings.  However, we now have an extra number of mean bridge players waiting for a game or two.

Alan_just_misses_pools_win

Our Chairman finding he was just one number off winning the £19M Lottery prize – now that would have solved a funding issue or two…

Thanks are due as always to Howard who has been keeping things busy on the Facebook page, with the picture here appearing recently of last Tuesday’s social meeting at the Legion, which went well with a good turn-out.  For anyone not too familiar with Facebook, you can see the Shed page here or also click the wee blue Facebook “F” logo at the foot of any page on this site.  The Facebook page has the most up-to-date information about past and upcoming goings on.

Regarding permanent premises, whilst it may look to the uninitiated like nothing much is going on, we can assure you that our Chairman Alan and others are like the proverbial duck – serene above the water but with legs pedalling like mad, below and out of sight.  Definite progress is being made though we hesitate to tempt fate by saying too much here – so do come along to our meetings to find out the latest.

Either way, we look forward to hearing and seeing from you all in due course.

A Happy New Year to all

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Welcome to 2017 and we wish a Happy New Year to all existing Banchory Shedders and to anyone interested in the Banchory Men’s Shed.

needles_doonAs tonight is Twelfth Night, by now your tree and ornaments are probably down (along with Many Needles!)  and you are thinking about the forthcoming return to “normality” as the festive season recedes.  This is just a quick blog post to remind you of a few things coming along to kick off the New Year.

Our first full meeting of the year will be our meeting next Thursday, 12th January, at the Legion Banchory at 2:00 p.m.  Topics on the agenda include progress reports on the two options for a permanent “home” for us, with, I believe, a wee surprise in store.   If it’s your first time at a Banchory Men’s Shed meeting and you’re not sure where to go, see our Where page.

Before that our first social meeting will be on Tuesday 10th January at the same place, at 10:30 a.m. for about 1-1/2 hours. Tea, coffee and a blether are the order of the day.

All are welcome to both meetings and you don’t have to be a member – just come along and see what’s going on.

To keep up with the Banchory Men’s Shed, our most up-to-date information is posted on our Facebook site, Howard doing sterling work as always to inform and usually amuse as well.

The full web site (this page) is updated as appropriate.  To save you having to visit the site if nothing is currently happening, you can deliver updates automatically to your e-mail inbox. Sign up on the right hand side of the page, where it says “Follow this blog by e-mail”, by entering your e-mail address and clicking the “Follow” link.  (If you’ve already done the “Follow” area will tell you you’re already signed up).

We all look forward to seeing you soon and to a constructive New Year with positive developments for Shed Premises!

River Dee Radio benefits from support by Banchory Men’s Shed

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River Dee Radio have recently taken delivery of a new Operations Desk, built and installed by the Banchory Men’s Shed.  This custom-built desk replaces the standard tables previously in use and provides specific work and equipment areas for radio operations, mike supports, computer location and so forth.  The desk was tailored to make best use of the space within the River Dee Radio room (at Banchory Legion).

rdr-desk

River Dee Radio’s new Ops Desk in use – with Graham Ling, DJ of the day (right), and BMS’s Alan Pumfrey (left)

The above picture shows the completed desk in use.  BMS’s Alan Pumfrey was also being interviewed by River Dee Radio to promote the Banchory Men’s Shed.

BMS are very pleased to be able to make a contribution in this way to help River Dee Radio’s continuing growth towards becoming a key resource for the River Dee area.

You can find out more about River Dee Radio on their Facebook page, listen directly on the web here, or by downloading any radio app such as TuneIn and searching for River Dee Radio.