News

We had a good Sizzle at Bunnings at Rocklea on the 10th of July.

Some of you will have seen Neil's email giving details of what we made. Thank you for the information and your kind words.

From a practical point of view it was satisfying to finish the day with nearly all the sausages sold (I had the last one - it tasted good!) and using up even the crusts on the bread, so the freezer only contains some onions!

Anyone have a recipe for French Onion Soup?

Thank you to everyone who came - I enjoyed it - I hope you did too.

Special mention of Shaban, the excellent bread folder - makes all the difference!

With the cool weather comes a chance to warm up around the powerful Bunnings Barbeque hot plate. Just think how you will feel if you wake on the 10th and realise that you could be toasting your frozen digits and probably making your social conscience feel good too if only you had put your name on the white-board (or let Steve twist your arm!)

Last one did reasonably well with a goodish number of drinks left over, so our expenses should not be so high this time. Check out Neil's email for details - thanks mate!

If you can't stand the heat then perhaps you could help elsewhere - Onion Tuesday is SO GREAT!!

The next Sausage Sizzle will occur on the 3rd April, a week earlier than originally planned. David Spillane will be the person to talk to about it, while Steve Chakalakis will be pushing recruiting.

Normally the sizzle starts with gazebo erection at 07:30 AM at Rocklea Bunnings, but there are other things that need to be done - onion slicing beforehand, vehicle loading at the shed at 06:45 AM before taking gear to Bunnings, buying the sausages, bread, onions, serviettes, etc. organising volunteers, communicating with Bunnings, etc.

Graham Brind has suggested starting "cutting-in" at about 08:30 AM to get things ready for the spraying which Andrew McInally will be available for at about 11:00 AM.

For weekday Sausage Sizzles there has been a change in start time to 07:30. 

There are other changes as well so I will try to catch up with all the volunteers to introduce them to the new handbook.

I would put it up on our web-site but it is set up to be printed on A4 paper and folded in the middle, so you need to have your head at right angles to read it!

Our first Sausage Sizzle for 2019 will be on Wednesday 13th February.

Invitations to register your interest and let us know when you can attend have been emailed (please reply!)  or you can put your name on the white board at the shed.

The Activities Organisers at Bunnings have asked that anyone involved with a Sizzle should read their new Guidelines, which I hope to be able to either email to you or have showing at the shed.

For previous Sizzlers the major change is that you are asked to put the onions under the sausages, but there are some others. 

We received a letter from the the Raise Foundation which was discussed at the recent Executive Committee meeting.

It is copied below for your consideration, along with David Spillane's reply (our President!)

Good Morning Jo, we tabled your correspondence at our management meeting and although we certainly believe your program is worthy of our support we also recognized our focus at this point of time is of assisting fathers and male supporters of people with autism. having said that we also agreed to send out your information to our members and let people contact you individually should they wish to be involved.

wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

 

David Spillane

President 

South Brisbane Men's Shed 

On Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 1:30 PM Joanne Comerford <joanne.comerford@raise.org.au> wrote:

Good Afternoon

My name is Jo Comerford and I work for an organisation called Raise Foundation. 

Raise Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that recruits volunteers from local communities to mentor young people identified by their high school to benefit from a neutral positive role model.  Raise is currently seeking interested volunteers who are able to spare 2 hours a week in school term time to mentor a young person. Mentors might be retired, parenting at home, studying, or have flexible work hours.  You don’t have to be a teacher or an expert to be a mentor!!

We have 10 fully funded programs across Brisbane in 2019. For your local interest we are to run our 4th program at Yeronga SHS, and our 2nd program at Holland Park SHS in 2019, amongst other northside located schools. We also have many other Brisbane high schools on our waiting list for 2020.  With the help of volunteers, Raise aims to support over 150 young Queenslanders (and over 1500 young people nationally) to feel more resilient, capable and connected.

One of the reasons that I am contacting The Men's Shed, is that while our lovely female mentors do amazing work with both our male and female students, we need more men in our mentor groups to be there for our male students - our boys - who particularly need a male role model in their lives.  Some of our boys find it very difficult to open up to a woman, and need a man to understand.  Could The Men's Shed members in Brisbane help us out by becoming mentors?

Each volunteer mentor is provided with free training in youth mentoring to equip them with the necessary skills needed to make a real difference in the life of a young person. No other special skills or qualifications are required. Being a Raise Mentor is a truly rewarding role, and really does create positive outcomes and life change for our young people.

I have attached some flyers that can easily be placed on social media, or incorporated into newsletters and emails. 

The link below gives more information and is the first step for anyone wanting to volunteer with Raise Foundation – www.raise.org.au/volunteer

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Jo Comerford
Program Counsellor
0422 505 951
raise.org.au

The Shed will restart activities on the 2nd of January 2019.

HOWEVER

If you can find and persuade a keyholder and you can ensure that there will be at least two shedders on-site then members suffering shed withdrawal symptoms can use the shed between the 18th of December 2018 and the restart date.

Next Tuesday we will be having a sausage sizzle for the end of year, associated with impromptu entertainments - musicians from 10 AM for as long as they can bear the strain, possibly John's ukulele group and any spontaneous contributions. Midday the sausage sizzle will occur - consider bringing a suitable plate!  There is ice cream in the freezer ....