• Meet with Jim to discuss moving shed cover to main wall not wanting to waste material
• Met M young member 14 years, members really seemed to enjoy having him around
• Starting to feel confident in putting my point of view across with the cover project
• Some dissention about J role amongst other members I work with
• Smoko and rugby talk, one member volunteering to meet visitors at airport
• Finished cover project for the day with M
• Took Photos
I arrived at 9.30 today the first Saturday session I’ve attended. As I arrived I meet with Jim to discuss moving the shed cover we had tacked to the side wall at the end of the last session to the main wall. Both myself and J had been thinking about this since last Wednesday and were not wanting to waste material. We untacked the sheet and laid it out and measured the length against the front wall (see photos). It turned out we had enough length to cover all of the front three bays.
In starting this project we were joined by M, the young member (14 years) who I heard the other members talking about at the August monthly meeting. We were also joined by IH a regular Saturday attendee who I meet at the Bunnings stock take. The members really seemed to enjoy having him M around and he appeared keen to be involved and learn off the members.
During our work around building the binds for the front three bays J came and went he said he wanted to leave it over to us, but he did return periodically to check on progress and question why we were doing thing as we were. I felt confident taking on the task and working with the other two who started to look to me for advice in leading the project. I tried to follow J lead and ask M and IH for their thoughts. IH was happy to suggest small things like doubling up saw horse as a mobile work bench. He however often differed to my judgment with good hearted comments like ’I know a trades man when I see one’. Other members came and went over the morning many commenting on how good the cover looked. During this task I felt my point of view and judgment were respected and I felt like a valued member of the shed.
During smoko I got talking with M about why he came to the shed. He was looking to get work experience in the engineering field and hadn’t had much luck until a family member suggested he approach the shed. He has been a regular attendee for the past few months and was becoming an official paid up member that day. M told me he really enjoyed attending and learning off the Men. To me he appears very mature in his approach to the work. He quickly asked for advice and made suggestions for example fixings for the blinds. A number of the other members like giving M a ‘hard time’ joking that they would write a report for his teacher or analyzing his work and making good humored comments. M seemed to respond well to this and even made comments on the work of other members.
During the mornings work and at smoko I noted some dissention about J and the way he offered advice on projects. IH sarcastically called him the ‘shed boss’ and ‘he who’s in charge’ to other members. I feel I’ve started to build a nice relationship with J through the work we’ve done together. This is the first time I noticed other members might hold different views to mine. This is something I plan to keep monitoring as a relationship dynamic in the shed.
At smoko there was a lot of rugby talk given the start of the world cup the night before, one member told me about his volunteering for the cup, meeting visitors at the airport. He was off there after the shed to meet some English visitors.
Myself and M finished the cover project for the day at 12.30 and talked with J about fixing plans for the blinds next session.
After tidy up I took photos of the sheds and surrounding environments See below) making sure not to capture any members as I’ve not yet had official ethics approval yet.
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