Triton Club to Men's Shed

[Carry Pine]

Some Forum members may remember our local Triton owners Club closing earlier this year. This was due to the resignation of the committee after safety concerns were expressed by a visitor.
That's all water under the bridge now. Our assets went to the Men's Shed an operation organised by the Uniting Church and I went along today. The aim is to cater for retired men (which does not include me although I'm welcome to come on holidays) and to adress health concerns with elderly men.
The 'shed' has grown to another $80 ooo shed which was chock a block with goodies. What struck me was a brand new Jet thicknesser (big type) and attached dusty and a Dewalt thicknesser (small type) with its dusty. There were 2 jointers (one Jet used 3 times) and heaps of other stuff. I noticed the old Triton Mark 3 but that will be replaced with a new Jet 10 inch saw soon.
I don't know how to express my amazement at agonizing at home about buying a $200 thicknesser when these resources are sitting out there in the community. I saw a slab go through the Jet - wow!
The aim of the whole thing is that men will communicate (chat) and the woodwork is a secondary thing although each person seemed to be doing something.
I'm not asking for any advice this time but I thought that Stuart, Sturdee etc and others who were so helpful when our club closed would be interested in this development.

As a visitor, I am not commenting on the work practices there.

Carry Pine

[Sturdee]

As a visitor, I am not commenting on the work practices there.


Maybe you should.:D So that they may decide to close up shop and transfer all those goodies to a new Triton club. :D

Thanks for letting us know what happened.


Peter.

[Stuart]

At least it is getting some use, but a shame (understandably) that it isn't open to anyone.

Wonder how the rest of us get an $80000 club off the ground?!!

Thanks for the update btw.

[Carry Pine]

I must admit to being a little bit cynical about it all. At the Triton club our great achievement was gaining a work centre from Triton and a free demo. The brand new Jet planer I saw yesterday had been used 3 times and one of those pieces had a nail in it!!!
These Mens Sheds are popping up around the towns now and as one member told me 'It's because men have nothing to do after retiring- women have lots of things to do.' I once lived in Bermagui and for $20 a year you could be a member of the golf, bowls and tennis club and fish whenever you wanted to. Grandma, however, was 5 hours away from her grandchildren and 2 hours away from the nearest hospital, so that comment doesn't make sense to me.

For those who are in Clubs like this, the format yesterday was 1) coffee and chat and then 2)off to the shed (in a different place) to work on wood. I think we made our mistake at the Triton club by having a meeting at the outset and this tended to go on a bit. There were those members who were anxious to get at it and finish projects.

Stuart had only mentioned the Jet planer last week so I thought that was interesting. Here we are in our individual sheds and garages amassing all these tools but with the option of a Mens Shed people have access to high quality machinery.

Thank you for allowing me to think out loud. I'm still amazed with what I saw.

Carry Pine

[DPB]

I think that this phenomena repeats itself all around the country - but not just at clubs - in private sheds as well.

If the truth was known, probably less than 50% of the tools we purchase are justified by their use. But being materialistic consumers, we purchase a new tool and justify it by saying we need it to complete the project at hand. (Probably the cost of the tool alone would cost more than the retail price of the project we are making.) Just read this thread, http://tinyurl.com/jrgz9 . I rest my case!

And it's not just woodworking tools. Think about it - cameras, camping equipment, golf equipment, etc, even major items like cars and boats; all are justified by a 'must have' passion, and infrequent use.

And, of course, there are memberships in commercial clubs, sporting clubs and gyms, etc. These organisations rely on low, even non-usage of their members, which allows them to vastly oversell memberships.

I think we are all guilty of obscene consumerism.:(

[BobL]

I think we are all guilty of obscene consumerism.:([/SIZE][/FONT]

I think someone called it affluenza?

Although I agree, I think it's all relative. As a hobby I don't think WW is as obscence as some others.

IMHO I see a lot more money wasted on big boats and ridiculously large houses.

[echnidna]

At least it is getting some use, but a shame (understandably) that it isn't open to anyone.

Wonder how the rest of us get an $80000 club off the ground?!!

Thanks for the update btw.

Set up a body corporate (non profit inc)

Start applying for grants,
theres a lot of money out there for the asking.
Some are Government grants some are Philantropic Organisations etc.
Some of Aussie Companies offer grants occaisionally

Grant applications are much like Town Planning applications.
You need to properly address all the areas preferred by the organisation offering the grants.

That means grant applications can be a tedious admin task. So someone on the committee needs to have good report writing skills and the time to do it.

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