10th of May saw the Group’s first Pop up shed, an important landmark in our development of the shed. This gave us the opportunity to meet, connect, converse, and create. Group members met at the Oakwood Community Centre in glorious weather to work together assembling bird boxes, bat boxes, and bug hotels from materials which we had prefabricated. The day had three key goals:

• Enjoy working together as a maker community
• To publicise the activities of our group and attract new members
• To produce craft items we can sell on our stall

Our handiwork will be available on the group stall at this year’s “Big 1” and “Oakfest”. Shedders rolled up at 10am to set up and as the weather was so good – most of our activities were carried out on the terrace in front of the building and soon we were attracting the attentions of passers by – we spent as much time talking to interested member of the public and hopefully have encouraged several potential new members to join us.

Our local Councillors Matt and Freya dropped in to see how we were progressing, which gave us an opportunity to discuss our plans for a permanent home and further funding opportunities to support our activities.

Coffee and bacon sandwiches (Thanks to our Hosts Geoff and Sharon for loan of their frying pan!) added to the sense of community and our shedders all came away that evening with a sense that we had had a good day out and made a positive effort for the shed. Plans are already afoot to have another similar activity for this summer – so watch our forthcoming events page for information!

Our Shed took another step towards finding a new home in May, when it joined the Chaddesden Park working group.

This meets monthly to discuss park issues amongst relevant community stakeholders. Local Charities such as Sporting Communities, AGE UK, the friends of Chaddesden Park are joined by Derby City Council representatives, Councillors, the local Cafe, and the community safety team.

We were able to explain our project and how this benefits the local community and received a very welcome response. We are now working together to see if it is possible to base Oakwood Neighbourhood Shed operations from a location in Chaddesden Park, and have developed a plan for our first joint community project with the working group. Andrew Cusick will be attending further meetings as a member.

It was a fantastic night at our launch meeting. Thank you to everyone who came along to support us and join up. It was great to see how quickly a room full of strangers turned into a relaxed bunch chatting and sharing their ideas about shedding. A big thanks to our steering group - Chris, Andy, Ian, and Tim for helping arrange things.

• A big high point was Matthew, Jamie and Freya, our Oakwood Councillors announcing their practical, support for the shed -more details to follow ! this will go a long way to making our plans a reality. not just financially but in terms of our credibility in dealing with other organisations.
• The search for a shed venue is progressing well with several alternatives being explored. Loraine Dryden and Matt Jensen have been a huge support and source of help
• Plans for future social activities, trips to events etc. will be discussed at the next meeting.
• The group has now established itself with a committee and the necessary admin to allow us to create a bank account. The additional credibility and funds which will come from the excellent support we received from Matthew, Freya, and Jamie will also allow us to approach other funding sources much more successfully .