Since opening as the first-ever Men’s Shed in Scotland in 2013, Westhill & District Men’s Shed (WDMS) has seen continual growth in its range of activities and member numbers – over 300 by 2020 – averaging nearly 100 member visits per week, pre-Covid.

The Shed opens three days a week, each for 6 hours, including a mid-week evening opening to allow non-retired members to attend and participate in Shed activities.

The heart of the Shed has always revolved around three main areas: the woodworking and engineering workshops and the social area, but they have added more activities to create greater variety for members to enjoy. Model making and 3D printing, with their associated electronics and 3D computer aided design work, are popular and more recently groups playing Bridge (in 2016) and music (in 2018) have been added.

The Shed is always busy with woodworking projects, many commissioned by local organisations including schools, nurseries, other charities, individual residents, care homes, the local community council and Aberdeenshire Council. In addition, the Engineering team carries out repairs of garden machinery and equipment for people in the local community as well as recycling a large number of such items donated to the Shed. A special arrangement with Aberdeenshire Council`s local recycling centre means mowers destined for the skip are recovered, refurbished and sold for Shed funds – their contribution to saving the planet.

WDMS holds a series of talks each year on a variety of subjects of general interest, including on men’s health and local history. Local service providers including opticians, pharmacies, the medical centre and even surgeons also give talks on their services. All talks are open to the public. Members and their partners can enjoy social functions at the Shed such as festive celebrations and theme nights.

WDMS has also set up a She Shed to help ladies learn some basic DIY skills and work on their own projects in a safe, controlled and supervised manner. The She Shed initiative has been positively received by the local community.

The Shed Trustees are very active and fully involved in running the organisation for the benefit of the members and funding has always been a high priority, to meet their policy that no member has to pay to be a member or to attend. This attention has ensured that they have always had a surplus of funds since the first year. An important contributor is the sale of recycled tools and machinery, at regular tool sales in Westhill or direct to customers at the Shed.

In late 2019, WDMS funds, supported by fundraising, enabled the purchase and installation of a large portable cabin known as the Kabin, to ease crowding. This has allowed the Shed to create revised and enlarged workshop layouts whilst enlarging the social, modelling and admin areas. Shed members carried out all internal fitting out, including electrics, plumbing, IT systems and a new kitchen.

Achievements

WDMS recognised in lockdown that there was a need to ensure that the essential role of the Shed was diminished as little as possible. WDMS introduced other ways to maintain as much interaction with, and between, members as possible. Following the installation of the extension building, the work to finish the re-organisation of the workshops and associated electrical power and lighting work stopped immediately however, with revised safety procedures it was possible for small groups to attend the Shed safely to continue this work once there was some easing of lockdown. This work was largely completed during the first quarter of 2021, making the Shed usable once again.

Consequently, as Covid restrictions were relaxed in April, a full risk assessment was carried out, procedures revised and a booking system introduced enabling up to 15 men to book places from April 2021. Safe Distancing Assistants were supplied by the SMSA to alert members if they came within 2m of each other.

Attendees in the second quarter completed the final stages of the extension project and began to re-start delayed project and community work. This included repair of lawnmowers and other garden equipment for local people, essential for the summer garden period, plus commissioned woodwork projects for a local primary school, various organisations and local people. All this work, together with repair and refurbishment of a significant amount of donated tools and machinery, brings in much needed revenue, especially from our quarterly tool sales in the Westhill Shopping Centre. A very visible project, commenced sometime before Covid by a dedicated group of members, is a model of the Peterhead Prison Railway system. This large model faithfully recreates the system that transported prisoners from the prison to a nearby quarry where, surrounded by armed guards, they quarried granite, ready to be transported to the docks to construct the two large breakwaters, which create the Peterhead harbour safe haven. The working model has an immense amount of detail based on local knowledge, photographs and maps, including roads, bridges, buildings (most produced on 3D printers) and the quarry itself. Streetlights and cranes in the quarry work and trains run on a continuous pre-programmed sequence. The project has now reached its final stages and is due to be delivered to the Peterhead Prison Museum in Early October 2021.

The highlight of this year, without any doubt, has been the recent award of the Queens Award for Voluntary Service with the following Citation “Promoting members’ wellbeing by providing social facilities and workshops for community projects”. Our Covid Face Visor project is a good example of such a community project and the award Crystal will also be engraved “with special recognition – Covid 19” Announced in June 2021, the Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire presented the award to the Shed on Monday 27th September.

Challenges

From the beginning, the Shed received very good support from Aberdeenshire Council and the local Westhill and Elrick Community Council (WECC) WECC have for many years produced an A5 sized quarterly publication – the Westhill Bulletin – that typically runs to 100 pages, delivered to every house in Westhill and District. To ensure that the Shed gets maximum publicity, WDMS includes a full-page article in each issue, as do most local organisations. This, together with good inter-organisation co-operation has helped us to attract new members, which also include members of both of the councils.

An unexpected but welcome challenge has been that the Shed exceeded business plan estimates for members numbers and were experiencing overcrowding in the workshops. WDMS required more room – a second hand portable cabin was chosen to solve this problem and this got excellent support from Aberdeenshire Council and local businesses. Just as this project was moving toward completion Covid put us in lockdown, which presented a new set of challenges.

However, despite the significant amount of work during the COVID lockdown period to keep members involved and kept up to date, there has been an inevitable reduction in numbers attending the Shed since re-opening in August 2020. There are a number of obvious reasons for this. Most members are well into retirement and have therefore been part of the most cautious group in society concerning COVID, and several have declared a hesitation to return just yet.

Others such as our bridge group will not return until they consider it safe to shuffle and handle cards between them. However, several have continued to play together online from their own homes and several good websites have developed considerably to make this practical. Whilst not giving the same social contact as face-to-face bridge it does maintain contact between the players. As with many organisations, not all members are regular active participants. Some just attend occasionally whilst others simply want to stay in touch with what the Shed is doing. Some have effectively let their membership slip, but without notifying the Shed. Over eight years, the Shed hase gathered some 300 members however, a proportion of these will not came back to the Shed – unfortunately, old age and illness do take a toll.

Consequently, WDMS is planning to poll members to gauge their status and future intentions to understand what, if anything, needs to be done to make the Shed more attractive to those members who wish to stay but have not yet shown their faces. New members are the lifeblood of any organisation so WDMS will continue to provide active encouragement for people to join. The Westhill Bulletin and Shed Facebook page have been useful vehicles for this and continue to do so. However, nothing breeds success like success, so it is key that the Shed continue to promote its successes to the public in Westhill.

Impact on Local Community

WDMS has always maintained good relationships with the community and Aberdeenshire Council and many other organisations in the area. Through these, the Shed and its services are well known in the community and never short of commissioned projects, especially where our prices, based on volunteer workers, provide very cost-effective solutions to the needs of residents and organisations.

Over the years, the Shed has procured some very impressive machinery for both woodworking and metalwork as well as a multitude of small hand and power tools. This enables the Shed to make a wide variety of wooden furniture and garden items. Bench seats with cast metal ends are a perennial favourite and can always be found under construction or repair in the Shed.

Another important service is full or partial clearances of tools and equipment from garages and Sheds, removing a lot of hassle from people who are moving home, have become unable to continue doing certain things or have suffered bereavement. In addition, many members of the community donate individual items they no longer need to the Shed.

Everything collected is sorted out and is either repaired and sold to the public at very affordable prices, retained to complement the Shed inventory, or passed to another charity for use in third world countries. Sales to the public take place at the Shed on the days it is open and at quarterly tool sales.

The local First Responders use the social area for meetings and as a base when on call and the Shed also provide local youth organisations with use of workshops and instruction for craft and woodworking badges. Examples of completed and ongoing projects include:

• A large curved sectional bench for Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, for the Archie Foundation
• 10 large picnic table/bench units for a local primary school
• 10 picnic benches for a major construction company
• Signs for the new Westhill Orbital Trail. This 12km (7.5 mile) walking/cycling trail circling Westhill officially opened in July 2021 as an asset for all the community to use and enjoy
• Pergolas for local charity (SensationALL), and an Aberdeen care home
• Repair and refurbishment of powered lawnmowers and other garden equipment
• Mobility scooter repair
• Repair and refurbishment of electrical mowers, strummers etc. Every repaired item is PAT tested (Portable Appliance Testing) before being returned to the customer.
• Design and build of six buddy benches for Community Council
• Design and build of garden furniture for Fittie community garden
• Friendship bench for local primary school
• 10 planters for Aberdeenshire primary school
• Sound and texture furniture for SensationALL, for children with multiple disabilities
• Stage props for Westhill Academy ‘Rock Challenge’ group for three years
• Numerous projects for the refurbishment of garden furniture for individuals
• Arranged a ‘free’ repair day where the Shed repairs a wide range of equipment
• Produced 600 Xmas reindeers over two years
• Support for, and hosted visits from, new start up Sheds both locally (Shire Sheds initiative) and from Shetland to the Borders
• Talks to local organisations promoting Men’s Sheds.

Leading Light

WDMS has been fortunate to have a very active Board over the years who have always been the driving force in getting the Shed to its current position. Current and previous Chairmen – David Thomson, Nick Pilbeam and Marty Kehoe – deserve the special thanks of all the Shedders, as do other Trustees. This is especially true of those who take a leading operational role as well as carrying out their Trustee work, such as Ian McMaster. All Trustees also undertake various operational roles in running the Shed.

Others who help to keep the Shed working effectively and efficiently are the Shed Supervisors who have special responsibility for safety when they are on supervisor duty. Members who are also Aberdeenshire Council and Community Council members have played a key role in aiding understanding of the role of these bodies relating to the Shed, as well as acting as points of liaison and ensuring that the Shed is fully recognised and supported by the councils wherever possible.

Project and activity leaders also freely take on responsibility for their area and for initiating projects, collating ideas, managing interested volunteers, agreeing scope and design and working with the project team to bring the project to fruition. Good examples of such a projects and activities are:

• The Peterhead Prison Railway system led by Doug Horne
• The Face Visor project, led by Nick Pilbeam
• Co-ordination of all woodworking projects led by Dave Thomson
• Managing the stores and tool sales led by John Foulkes
• Wood workshop supervision led by Lui Forno
• Metal workshop supervision led by Ian McMaster

Going Above and Beyond

WDMS was granted the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in June 2021 with special recognition for its COVID-19 work. The Shed was made aware of the grave shortages in personal protective equipment (PPE) for their local care homes. Shed members did some research and learned that face shields could be made simply with a 3D printer and an A4 sheet of acetate.

A project team was quickly set up to tackle the issue using the Shed printer however soon realised that the volume needed to be increased quickly and therefore recruited over 20 individuals, some with 3D printers in their own homes. A small army of face shield preppers and other volunteers joined forces to co-ordinate the production and distribution of almost 2,700 face visors.

Although volunteers were making the visors at cost, the Shed was shutdown with no normal income. Successful fundraising, and funding from Aberdeenshire Council, covered all material costs to supply the visors free of charge. Production was distributed locally to Aberdeenshire Council, care homes, carers and small businesses and charities that were open.

Staying Connecting During the Pandemic

Communications with members has always been important and this was especially so during Covid, when members could become more isolated and lack social interaction.

From the beginning of the first lockdown in March 2020, regular very casual Zoom meetings were set up each Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon, open to all members, and these continued until August 2021. WDMS used its Facebook page to share information with members and regular e-mails were posted by the Board with updates on activities during shutdown.

A WhatsApp group was also set up – for updates and good humour in various forms to keep spirits and morale up. Our programme of talks, open to members and the public, previously held once a month over the winter – the greatest time for potential isolation – were increased to twice a month using Zoom, covering a wide variety of subjects including health, home safety, and topics of general interest. These proved popular with very good attendance, including some non-Shed members.

Individual groups such as the Bridge members and Music group also maintained contact. Where it is recognised that some members, especially the more vulnerable, were absent from Zoom meetings, talks and WhatsApp interaction then telephone support was initiated – and much appreciated. With regular e-mails and telephone support, members were never isolated from the Shed.

Future Plans

WDMS’s first priority is replacement of the roof of the original Shed building which has been leaking in several places for some time. The project to design, purchase, install and commission the extension was already underway so it was decided to complete this before the roof replacement. Successful fundraising, together with funds generated from project work for customers, now means that WDMS can go ahead with the replacement which will commence in October 2021. This will help reduce carbon footprint as it will include extra insulation.

Covid has resulted in a significant loss of momentum and the major short-term challenge is in encouraging existing members to return to the Shed. Attracting new members is also a priority given the average age of our regular attendees who contribute significantly to raising the funds needed for Shed operating costs.

The Peterhead Prison Railway project is due to be transported to the Peterhead Prison Museum in October, allowing the Shed to use all of the new social area space for the first time. This will provide the opportunity to invite the Bridge and Music groups back to the Shed.

The extended social facility also provides space for additional social/recreational activities while additional machinery in both workshops extend the potential for new activities and services. One such new service offering, which has recently commenced, is watch/clock repair. This will shortly be publicised to the community.

A Shed recipe book is in development by the SheShed to help with Shed funds and will be published in time for Christmas presents. All Recipes are original to the authors and include some quirky entries. New activities are driven by demand from the members, or by members with the skill, experience and interest in leading the activity or providing the service. A photography section had been mentioned prior to lockdown and this will now be followed up to see how many might be interested.