Date: 17th September 2011

Saturday session
• Talked with I and person enquiring about setting up a shed in Port Chalmers
• Meet with J and M to discuss end shed cover plans
• Worked with M on shed cover
• Difficulties working with materials and producing an end product we were happy with
• Smoko and rugby talk, caught up with volunteer who met visitors at airport. Discussed numbers at the shed and workshop space.
• Finished cover project for the day with M
• Cleaned up work area

When I arrived I was talking with a person who was visiting and making enquiries about setting up a shed in Port Chalmers. I joined this discussion and I comments reaffirmed a number of foundation point of the shed that had been mentioned on previous occasions these being
• The making of place through renovating and constructing the shed and it facilities.
• A clear focus on what the shed does both community and individual projects. I acknowledged this was a difficult balance and one which had been discussed amongst the members as noted in last week’s journal entry.
• The need to have the support of others (organizations and communities) and a critical mass of people who organize and drive shed structure and progress. These points were seen as vital by I. The visitor from Port was currently in the process of holding community meetings. He wanted to orientate the shed at Port to the community and discussed using the label ‘Community Shed’ rather than blokes shed. The plan being to involve as many sectors of the community as possible. My thoughts are that this would be a difficult balancing act as there would have to be a degree of management of which groups used the shed and when. It may also transpire that in meeting with the community that there is a defined group who would benefit most from the shed and it may be more productive to meet this need rather than trying to cater for all. Catering for a distinct group such as the Blokes Shed does helps enable community and place through familiarity, similarity and a degree of commonality of purpose. Some of the literature reviewed indicates that sheds work best if they cater for this.
• The Port visitor said he’d keep the Blokes Shed informed of progress. I also plan to keep an eye on the local papers and media for developments.


Meet with J and M to discuss end shed cover plans. We looked at the tarp which a member had purchased for the end. A shared concern was that the quality of the material was nowhere near the same as the other blinds. Give the relatively low cost of the tarp and the availability of other materials we decided to fit the blind and see how well it lasted. Myself and M worked on the cover following steps from the previous week. We struck a number of minor difficulties and frustrations around using and fitting the material. We had to double over the tarp as cutting it to fit would have weakened it. This made the blind less tidy the front side. Neither M and myself were happy with the final product and other members commented that although it was functional it didn’t match the other blinds and wouldn’t be a s durable. After consulting with J we decided to revisit the cover fitting next Saturday. This highlighted to me the balance between making do a the shed and also producing a result that meet purpose.
Smoko comprised more rugby talk about the progress of teams in the world cup. I caught up with volunteer who met visitors at airport last week and he talked about how much he’d enjoyed directing the English visitors to local bars and night spots. I also got talking to P and E about how things were going in the workshop that morning. This lead to discussion about how busy the space was becoming and the difficulties of working around each other. To me this raises safety and productivity issues around how many can attend on any set day. Today was fine so a number of members worked outside, thus alleviating the problem however this is not always the case. Space and popularity of the shed had been noted in the Wednesday meeting and plans are being discussed to open on additional days.
Finished cover project for the day with M
Cleaned up work area. I noticed many of the member had departed by 12 noon and not all areas we as clean as at the beginning of the day. I have observed that I and J often are the last to leave and do lock up and tidy up. I’m unsure if this is a frustrations for them, something they see as their role or something the shed needs to reinforce as a shared responsibility.