John’s just come back from his first morning working at the Brisbane TRAM Shed and clearly thoroughly enjoyed it.
He’s brought their newsletter (Facing Points) and here’s what it says about the Brisbane TRAM Shed:
The Brisbane Tramway Museum has joined the [url=http://www.mensshed.org]Australian Men’s Shed Association (AMSA)[/url].
The AMSA is a growing organisation in Australia and has received substantial Commonwealth Government funding to deliver services to this sector of the Australian community.
The primary reason for joining the AMSA is to ensure the long term survival of the museum.
The TRAMS group has been renamed to the Tuesday Retired Active Men’s Shed. It is anticipated that we will be able to recruit new retired vilunteers via the integration of a Men’s Shed into the museum. We’ve visited the [url=http://ridleyroadmensshed.blogspot.com]Men’s Shed at Ridley Rd[/url] at Bridgeman Downs and were very impressed with the setup of their shed and the level of enthusiasm of the volunteers and the excellent standard of work being undertaken during the day’s activities. We will be visiting the Men’s Shed known as ‘[url=http://www.shedwest.com.au]Shed West[/url]’ at Kenmore later this month.
I encourage all readers to visit the AMSA website and the links above.
A tri-fold double-sided Men’s Shed information borchure has been produced and is currently being printed for distribution to various locations in the local area. This brochure provides information on the different types of activities that are undertaken by the TRAMS Group at the museum and the officialname of our Men’s Shed in “The Brisbane TRAM Shed”.
It should be noted that persons joining the museum through the Men’s Shed format will not be tramway enthusiasts but will be persons looking to be involved in a community-type organisation.
Not all persons in a men’s Shed are retired as there are also a number of younger persons (still in employment) who are regularly involved in shed activities.
It will be required that all volunteers wear name taghs and there will be an induction cheklist form for the site prior to permitting persons to work on the different types of tools and equipment. The induction checklist form is currently being prepared for final checking and deployment.
In summary the only way that the tramway museum is going to survive long term beyond the next five to ten years is to become more community orientated more involved in the local community and establish ‘Networking Links” with other community grups. The establishing of a Men’s Shed group within the tramway museum is the first step in this future direction.