## Annual Report for Elgin & District Men`s Shed Elgin & District Men`s Shed was set up in 2017 as a charity (Number SC048460) to provide recreational facilities and advance the social needs, Health and Wellbeing of men of all ages and backgrounds living in Elgin and surrounding areas by creating, developing and maintaining a facility, namely a Men`s Shed, offering opportunities for men in the Elgin area to meet and undertake creative, physical, purposeful and recreational activities of their choice, reducing social isolation of men in the area thus contributing to their physical and mental wellbeing. Developing the capacity of men in the Elgin area to share their skills and knowledge with others in the community. Membership numbers has remained fairly static with a few retiring and a few new faces. A small nucleus of people attend most mornings and undertake projects of various types but mainly building wooden items that have been requested by people in the community. The formal meeting continues to take place on Thursday afternoons with anything between 12 and 18 attending. Once again the year has been a busy one for a number of members who are using their different skills for the benefit of all who are involved in Elgin & District Men`s Shed (EDMS). EDMS applied to the Just Transition Participatory Funding exercise of 2024. The funds bought new windows and steel for constructing security grilles at each window. New window blinds were also part of the funding. Members helped remove the old windows and got a coat of sealer on them prior to Installation. The security grilles were then built in-house. Various members were involved in cutting, welding, painting and installation. It was very much a team effort. ## Annual Report for Elgin & District Men`s Shed At the same time lots of small jobs were undertaken in the community and these varied from fixing decking, felting shed roofs, hedge trimming, replacing or refurbishing garden benches, making replacement gates to hanging doors. The work was worthwhile though and we can now charge the tools` batteries at no grid cost. Once a changeover switch is purchased and installed, we hope to run the lights and perhaps a small heater off the renewable energy now generated by the system. That will help greatly as we have we have to pay industrial prices for electricity. Annual Report for Elgin & District Men`s Shed Last year EDMS had been offered timber from a bridge that had been replaced in a nearby coastal town. The request from the Lossiemouth Development Trust was that EDMS build two benches and two planters retaining where possible the patina of the timber. These timbers had been walked on for many years and had varying amounts of wear so that created a challenge. Nevertheless, two of our members built what was required, the articles were picked up and eventually sited close to the entry to the replacement crossing. An official handover took place on 20[th] December 2023. All groups which had been involved in acquiring the replacement bridge or had handled the timbers from the old bridge were represented at a small ceremony with mince pies and refreshments afterwards. Annual Report for Elgin & District Men's Shed A further baulk of timber has been found which was adrift but has washed ashore at the side of the harbour. It is very heavy so it will be cut into four pieces, lifted on to the harbour wall, transported to our HQand left to dry out for a number of months. In the meantime, the few remaining planks were being turned into items such as pens, penholders, keyrings, and small bowls. Because the bridge timbers will never again be available, these items caused lots of interest. One member in particular, spent a huge amount of time turning these items which led to a healthy income for EDMS. This work continues along with other items being turned from different species of timber including larch, oak and pine. A local children s creche asked EDMS to build a new storage shed for them and in return they would receive the previous shed to use if required. The new shed was built, the old one transported to our current site and rebuilt. Work benches were installed inside to allow it to be used a5 a paint shop. Annual Report for Elgin & District Men's Shed One nearby hotelier askes EDMS If the members could repair a tabletop football game which had been spoiled due to water ingress. Desplte its poor state, the table was repaired well enough for the owner to continue its use. It is based outside the function suite of the hotel to keep youngster5 amused during weddings and other events. A collapsed office chair was also repaired for the same person. The Elgin Rotary Club approached EDMS to find out if there was any way we could manufacture extra long rakes to be used to rake back the embers of the bonfire on Guy Fawkes night. The result was three rakes with metal handles nine feet in length. Two members volunteered to help on the night and found nine feet too short due to the intense heat. A le550n was learned for future year51 Various other activities took place in the community, one of which was to build shelves inside a cupboard for a local community Cafe to store their drinks cans. The Local Authority had deemed their storage outside to be inadequate, so EDMS members were glad to help. Three sturdy shelves were installed with care taken over the space5 to allow drinks cartons to be stored full. Various requests were received to refurbish benches and there were adequate willing hands to undertake this work. Some bench ends required shot-blasting and EDMS members were ## Annual Report for Elgin & District Men`s Shed able to use a local contact to have the work done. Members feel it is important to support local businesses whenever possible and this is one such business. One refurbishment done for a local estate owner led to EDMS being invited to visit the estate office to look at timber that was stored there. There are various species available to EDMS at a low price if required to build larger items such as tables or benches. Early in the year EDMS had been asked by the Local Authority to empty a small industrial unit that had been used for making signs but the business had failed. Some IT equipment was removed along with some small items like card readers which it was felt could be useful. A large cutter was also removed and later sold on to another organisation, The card readers were utilised when EDMS held a sale and a form of raffle using lucky squares at a local Christmas Market. Soft toys had been purchased from the business next door but a reasonable profit was returned after overheads were paid. During one of the weekly meetings EDMS members were given a talk about online security and the various scams that target members of the public. This was delivered by a police officer trained in searching out scammers and members enjoyed the talk. Another talk was organised about oral health but for various reasons never took place. A variety of toothbrushes and toothpaste were left for members but it was agreed it would be beneficial to the local School Bank so they were donated for the benefit of children. Furthermore, that was the organisation which allowed EDMS to share the pop-up shop. EDMS also held a sale of wooden items after being offered a corner in a pop-up shop by a social enterprise who had taken on a shop unit for a few months in the local shopping centre. People had heard in advance that wooden items made from the timbers of the bridge as mentioned earlier, were to be available to buy. Those members in attendance were inundated by people wishing to purchase these items and, in fact, hardly got a chance to set up before being swamped with orders. Every wae,Nc ree GySe item sold out quickly and orders were taken for many more. A date was issued to those who had orders to pick up and the pop-up shop was utilised once more, as was the card reader. Most transactions were made using cash but EDMS now find it ## Annual Report for Elgin & District Men`s Shed helpful to have the facility to take payments by debit or credit card. A particularly pleasing request that EDMS undertook was one from a local elderly people`s residential care home to make holders for dominoes as some were having difficulty holding the actual dominoes. Two types of holders were nded over for the use of residents with seven of each type being produced. A date was issued to those who had orders to pick up and the pop-up shop was utilised once more, as was the card reader. Most transactions were made using cash but EDMS now find it helpful to have the facility to take payments by debit or credit card. Funding the lease continues to be very difficult. Five of our six local elected members visited our HQ. after an invitation was issued to them. They were reminded of their commitment to assist EDMS at a husting prior to the last local election. A decrease in rent was discussed but they felt that since the council was working to deliver a very tight budget at that time a request for a drop in rent was unlikely to be successful. Nevertheless, EDMS received £3,400 from their ward budgets to allow us to continue paying the rent until after the budget gets delivered. That was a very welcome outcome. Annual Report for Elgin & District Men's Shed Staff from local company Gleaner, held a race night and EDMS was lucky enough to be recipient of the some of the money taken on the night. This local company has offered EDMS some assistance with media cover but also to set up Crowdfunder which will be designed to help pay core costs. The work is ongoing as the person involved has a very busy role within the business. However, the business owner is keen to help the Men s Shed movement, not just here but in other areas too. M05t recently EDMS was awarded six days oftime after applying to a government funded organisation called the Community Enterprise Group. This organisation specialises in helping groups get on to a sustainable footing. Their programme called "Accellerate" was deemed the most appropriate for EDMS so we certainly hoped for a positive outcome at the end of the allocated time. At the end of the programme we were in a position to start the CAT process and successfully requested support for the exercise from DTAS. EDMS applied to the Just Transition Participatory Budgeting fund and were delighted to be successful in receiving enough public votes to receive funding to instal new hardwood double glazed windows. Annual Report for Elgin & District Men`s Shed The old windows were single-glazed and in a poor state of repair. Of course the members helped remove the old windows. Further funding from that source allowed EDMS to purchase steel to construct security grills for the new windows with vertical blinds for the windows within the social space. This year EDMS members sat down to a Christmas lunch in a local club. The event was a good example of the camaraderie which exists within the membership. Further to our work with Gleaner, a Just Giving page has been set up and is now live. Problems with Facebook have been fixed and we have been gifted a laptop and printer which is for the use of members. Staff from one of our major local businesses called Springfield do some fundraising during the year. This year the funds were shared between Dornoch Men`s Shed and us and we were delighted to receive £300. We the trustees, end the report on a fairly positive note with a reasonable membership, lots of pieces of work taking place in the community which have been beneficial to many and the hope that a Community Asset Transfer will happen, and the rent will drop to an affordable figure putting EDMS on a sustainable footing. (This report has been compiled to represent activities carried out by members of EDMS in 2023/24 but does not include every single activity) Signed:- Annual Report for Elgin & District Men s Shed Elyln & Dlstrl¢t M•n Sh Recelptsand Payin*its Accounts P•rtod iKtJ•nLwyal24.31￿D•e￿nbtr1I24 CILx•d FY2023 Wanc•.£ $wthtr¢ofAxo￿ 7.401.81 FY2024 b*larta- £ ¢17.103Ag LWT¢blal.£ Incomo Sourc• FY2024 135St YJ.Y11XT X71157 41•)7e •Js TOIAL 37.795.93 Expand￿re FY2024 12•)20 357J5 TOTAL 0.00 i•.sgo.•o 18201 3797.OJ 3482.33 40688 8TATEMENT OF FINAL BALANCE FOR FY2024 Fln•l Balanc• £37.151.26 APPROVED BY D•slgnatlon Slgnatur• Flnal Approval Date ELGIN & DISTRICT MEN'S SHED PERIOD ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024 Indepfnden¢ Ei4mlner'$ Report to the Trusteu on the •Daudlted nnaftclll st*iements ofthe El8ln & Distriit Meii's Sht￿. I rep)rt on the fuwi¢iai ststall￿ts0f the Ckarty forthe ptsir￿1 c[￿ed 31 Dece4th 2024. Re$pe¢tlve responslbilltiu of tnuteu 8Dd Indepe￿Ient ex*miner As des¢ribed, the chuity's rnLSteesarere8pon￿b1e tor the PTepar8bon of the awunl$ in4￿rdan¢¢ with the ternis of the Chatities and 'l'rusi¢e Ini'esiment1Scotlandl 2005 Act and the LThanti¢s A¢counts IS¢otlanél Regul81ions 2006. Theeharity trusm c(￿51derthal the wdii r¢qwrcmeni of Regulaiion lQ(l) (dl of the Accounts RegulpdilQllS does noi Iwply. It Is niy re5POD5ibility ￿ ¢xamin¢ ihe a¢￿vn￿ as r¢quir&J under section 44(1) (c) of the Aci and tts Slat¢ whcthcr partscvdlar n]att¢rs ha¥¢ com¢ ￿ my d(Miion. B&si$ Of Ind¢pend¢Jbt examiner'i My ex&minatioK 18 canied out iti dec(*dthce with Regu￿tion I l of the ch&ritI￿ Accounts (Scoilt)nd) Re8ulation$ 2￿. An ¢XAminatioD in¢lude5 8 review of the accouDtiri8 records k¢pi by th¢ ¢h￿lty and a COTnpaNson of the geeounts presented with those teeord$. li also inciudt# con$ider81ion of unusual items or disclosurts im the Aeeaunrs And seeks explAnarirJns frthm the tNsiees cortceming any sueh mattets The pro¢￿uT¢s und¢naken do not rffovide all the evidentt thaÈwould b¢ requirnl in an oudii and, consequently, I do ot express an audit opinion on the accounts. I have ca￿le￿I wt wth investigations as were n#esgary ￿ awble me to forn an cfj)inion u lo wh¢thw proper accounting records ats]uAte for the Purposes of the Charity have been kept and the financial statements of the Charity w¢r¢ in accorda￿t with the *tounting records. Independtnt ¢Jamintr'i slatement In th¢ course of my exarnination, no matter Iw come to my attention which ￿'Ve5 me r¢Lg)n•bl¢ ¢4u8e w believe in anv maiuia] rwi the requirements.. lo kE*'P ILLLOUtitin¥ ￿(ordS in a￿Ord￿￿e with ￿tiOn 44(1) (a) of the 2￿3 Aci and R¢gul&iion 4 of th¢ 2006 A¢¢ounts RcgulaliOi￿. and to prcp8rc rt¢¢ounts wh2Gh accoTd with the a¢wyntsn8 T¢wrth and ¢omply with Re8U1￿lOn 9 of the 2￿6 Ar￿U￿t& Ke8ulatigni have not been rn¢t to which. in rny opithion, attention dhould be drzwn in order to eTthile a properunde￿dlnB (>f th¢ ccounts 10 be reached. Clo Ril%ons CharteT¢d Accountants Independent Examiner 103 High Street Forres IV36 IAA