A location’s been chosen and the committee formed, and Bundarra’s Men’s Shed is just a few inches of red tape away from becoming a reality.
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There are already 12 financial members in the budding group, which formalised their committee on Sunday, September 9. The group has begun an agreement with Bundarra Central School to use the school’s Vocational Education and Training (VET) Shed as their base, and may work alongside students on community projects.
They are now waiting for three or four weeks to become fully registered.
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The shed is the brainchild of its publicity officer Bruce McLean, who felt such an organisation would help men facing health issues, such as his own depression.
He said the ability to feel useful and work on a project could make a big difference to someone fighting depression, and he had seen this first hand by volunteering for BlazeAid, which has also returned to the area.
“(It’s) the best I’ve felt in more than six years,” Mr McLean said.
“I think (the Men’s Shed) gives older people like myself and people older than myself something to do to occupy their mind. They can do things in the Men’s Shed that can go back into to the community.”
Inverell Men’s Shed president Greg Brabant said there are many possible pitfalls in setting up a Men’s Shed, and encouraged the Bundarra branch to pay attention to other organisations’ mistakes. He felt Bundarra should focus on building an effective management strategy that didn’t rely on a few key individuals to keep the organisation functioning.
“We function on a management committee, they run this shed, not individuals. They get together once a month whenever we need to, they make the decisions and then it goes back to the men,” he said.