Our next Laser Training Sessions in March happens on Monday 10th March 2025. If you want to learn how to operate the laser cutter, come down to the shed this coming Monday.

Join everyone in our summer garden for fresh baked scones, jam and cream with friendly companionship. All existing members as well as any prospective members are welcome. 

Gents, As foreshadowed at our previous meetings, this month we are going to take you on a trip to Japan by presenting you with a selection of Sake (rice wine) selected by our expert advisor Sandra Gwee who is an accredited Sake Sommelier. Selecting Sake in a Japanese restaurant can be quite daunting because the nomenclature is quite esoteric.  If you are like me, you will often resort to the safety of a cold glass of beer or pick a rather middling wine (Japanese restaurants are not famous for their wine lists). Fear no more.  At the next wine evening, under the tutorage of Chris and myself, you will given a grounding in the different styles of Sake (there are 5).  You will know what the various names mean and hopefully be able to make an informed choice when presented with that confusing list of Sake. Be warned.  There are about 1800 producers of Sake in Japan and like our wine makers they pride themselves on making something unique.  But, once the world of Sake is open to you there will be many opportunities to experiment and find your favourite. As per normal, there will only be 21 places available so be quick to reserve a place.

All Members who intend to be part of the Woodworking Group will need to complete this Power Tools Induction Training. There is a once off Cost of $10 for this Training Course, which can be paid when you purchase a ticket. Note: Members are required to complete the 'Yellow Dot' Shed Introduction session before taking part in a Red Dot training session. There will be a maximum of 3 persons for each Training Session.  If after booking, for some reason you cannot attend the training, please advise the Red Dot coordinator, Jeremy Wallace, on 0406927650 (SMS please), or email (jeremywallace5@outlook.com) as soon as possible, so we can arrange another session for you.  If you have trouble booking please contact Jeremy by SMS. The successful completion of the Red Dot Training is a pre-requisite to booking the Blue Dot Woodwork Machinery Course. Once you have completed this Training, your Membership Badge will updated to show a Red Dot and enable you to undertake any projects in the Main Workshop that utilise only Power Tools. 

Woodworking Machinery Induction (Blue Dot) – Phases 1 & 2 All Members who wish to use the woodworking machinery in the Machine Room will need to complete Phase 1 & Phase 2 of the Woodworking Machinery Induction Training. Please Note that Members must have completed the Red Dot course before enrolling in this Blue Dot course? This Course will be conducted in two Phases over two consecutive weeks (9am - 12pm) so you must be able to commit to both sessions before purchasing a ticket. Each Phase will be approximately a three hour duration. There will be a maximum of 3 persons for each Session. The Cost of this course (for both Phases) is $20.  If after booking, for some reason you cannot attend the training, please advise Michael Cahill on 0459062090 as soon as possible, so we can arrange another session for you.  If you cancel or are a “no show” on the day you will lose your $20 fee so please, only book if you can commit to the two consecutive weeks. Payments can be made online by secure credit card.  Once you have completed both phases of the Woodworking Machinery Induction your Membership Badge will be updated to replace the Red Dot with a Blue Dot.  This will reflect that you have completed all the necessary Woodworking Training and are ready to undertake any Woodworking projects in the Shed. 

To maintain your Blue Dot Woodworking Accreditation you will need to, you will need to undertake a Verification of Competency (VOC) Assessment as follows. Woodworking members aged under 75 years will be assessed every 24 months Woodworking members aged 75 to 84 years will be assessed every 18 months Woodworking members older than 85 years  will be assessed every 12 months You will be assigned a simple task which shouldn’t take more than about 30 minutes. This is not a test of your craftsmanship; it is simply a demonstration that you can competently use the machinery unsupervised without endangering yourself or others.  You can book your VOC Assessment by clicking on your preferred VOC Assessment date below. The Rostered Supervisor for the day will oversee your assessment and he will either deem you "competent" or refer you to a Trainer for further assessment or training. If you choose not to do the VOC Assessment,  you will no longer be able to use the Machine Room equipment unsupervised.

The Shed will be closed on Monday, 3 March for the Labour Day Holiday.

The Showgrounds Community Men’s Shed will be 5 years old at the end of this February and we think this is an event worth celebrating.  As a result, we will be holding a birthday party at our Shed on Thursday 27th February from 5pm to 8pm. We invite you to join us at our celebration event.  You are also welcome to bring a partner. Our renowned Kitchen Group will be providing finger food and other delicious morsels gratis to members and guests.  Drinks will be available at normal bar prices. To assist with catering we ask that you RSVP by booking your free tickets

Join everyone on our 5th birthday in our summer garden for fresh baked scones, jam and cream with friendly companionship. All existing members as well as any prospective members are welcome. 

URGENT   I have a few remaining spots that need to be filled for  the SKIN CLINIC. Please grab a ticket and send me a message  on 0405731761 and I will slot you in. Let me know if you have a preferred time between 3 and  5pm on Wednesday  26  February Michael Hart   A life saving opportunity for Sheddies. We are very pleased to advise that we have obtained the services of Dr Andrew Duthie to come to the Shed and conduct FREE skin checks for our Shed Members at this session of the Wellness Group. Dr Andrew Duthie recently gave a very informative presentation regarding skin cancers which has galvanised a number of members to go and have their skins checked already. Shed Members now have the chance to get their skins checked by either Andrew or his associate, (Theatre Nurse Rachal) at this in Shed clinic. Members who have not had a skin check recently are particularily encouraged to book in. The number of skin checks which can be performed is limited and if you wish to attend you will need to contact our very own Dr Michael Hart on 0405 731 761 in order to be allocated a time slot. The Clinic will run between 3 and 5pm and will help if you could request an approximate time. Please also register for the event by purchasing one of the free tickets in the usual way. Please take advantage of this very relevant opportunity to check on your skin health. Who knows, it might even save your life.        

All members are welcome to join our Art Group and explore their own artistic talents, try a new medium, have a go or just watch, chat and learn a little as other members experiment and create. No previous experience is necessary. We are a very informal group with a range of talents and abilities but just having a go - absolute beginners to grand masters!

Hi Guys, On Thursday 20th Feb we will be holding the fourth LRC training workshop. There are 3 places available at this workshop which will be allocated on a first come first served basis. If you miss out on this workshop then you will be first in the queue for the next workshop in February. I will notify those that are attending on 20th on or before Friday 14th Feb.   If you wish to attend this workshop then please take the tickets marked 20th Feb LRC Workshop.   If you wish to put your hand up to attend a future workshop because you can't come on the 20th Feb workshop then take a ticket marked Future LRC Workshop.   Below is the compulsory pre-reading for the 20th Feb workshop. In this workshop we will be looking at how to curate your photos for ease of access in the future. This will be done using some of the features of LRC. There are 2 primary ways to curate your photos: 1. Organise them by date and then use collections and tagging in LRC to organise them further. Your file structure will be date based, eg by month or year. 2. Organise them by category and sub-category in your file structure then add them to LRC using this structure. For example, categories could be, travel, family, events, photography.... . You then use LRC to view by date or tag plus create collections of one or more categories/sub-categories for viewing a summary of your photos. Peter Buck and I use this strategy. Your decision could be influenced by your past file storage structures. Neither strategy is better, they are just different, both provide good outcomes. Perhaps the only real difference is that with 1. you always need LRC/LR to access categorised photos, whereas with 2 you have access to categorised unedited photos direct from the file structure. Please think this through before you arrive on Thursday so we can assist you to start curating your photos more effectively. Additionally, LRC collections can be synced to the cloud at no cost and viewed in LR on any device using the free access to LR. This is very handy for showing family, friends and colleges your photos. Secondly, we will look at the process to choose which photos to keep and then which ones to edit. Lastly, we will look at how LRC can assist you with editing photos. This part of the session will be personally customised to your present capability level and any areas of specific interest you have in editing. Please select several photos from your collection which you would like to work on during the workshop. To facilitiate this session you should bring your laptop with Lightroom Classic loaded and your photo collection either loaded to the laptop or on a portable drive of some description that can be attached to your laptop. If you don't have a laptop or you don't have a LRC subscription then you can use one of the Shed laptops with LRC loaded and bring you photos on a portable drive. If you take up the latter option (and I would recommend this if you don't have later model reasonably fast laptop) then you will be able to take your work home as a catalogue on a thumb drive and use it again in the future, either at the Shed or on your desktop machine at home. Please nominate which of the above options you will use and whether it is a Windows or Apple laptop prior to the meeting by return email to me. See you at 12pm on Thursday. Regards JB