Home

FERRYMEAD BUSMENZ SHED

Ferrymead Busmenz Shed is a 'not for profit' charitable trust. Our objectives are:-

To advance education in restoring and maintaining heritage road passenger transport. To this end we are endeavouring to establish a small bus museum in Christchurch area where we can display bus material relating mainly to the old Canterbury rural bus services such as that operated by Midland Motorways, Days Motors, Newman Bros., Mt Cook, NZ Railways Road Services and others. We would also take interest in the Education Dept School Bus services that many people from country areas will know. Our aim is to restore several of these old buses and display them at our Museum.

To participate in the provision of charitable excursions for local registered charities and other groups. For this, we have obtained a heritage bus (pictured below) which will be used for local charters and day trips. Bookings can be made by phoning Ken on 3557366, or 0274511955.

To cooperate and support other groups with similar aims and objectives, in particular those involved in the restoration and preservation of heritage road transport in Christchurch and Canterbury. Some of our members are also members of the Tramway Historical Society at Ferrymead and other heritage bus groups. We will look to work with these groups to advance this objective.

How does our Busmenz Shed work?

We have chosen the Menz Shed 'Trust' format under which we will operate our specialist road passenger transport museum Shed because it provides us with a proven and workable structure for management and operation. It also provides a framework whereby a mix of members and volunteers can work together contribute towards our objectives as well as gain satisfaction and seek experience and knowledge themselves for any project of their own which they might wish to bring along. And, although our main purpose is the museum, we are able to under take community projects as well, which is in the spirit of all menz sheds.

Accordingly, we will try to bring men together within our shed space the sharing of skills, to have a laugh, and to work on practical tasks individually (personal projects) or as a group (for the Shed or community).

The sort of projects our Shed could tackle would be to take on some community projects, within the local community, examples of which include help for building playgrounds for pre-school centres, repairing toy library stock, repairing old bikes for distribution to poorer communities, building planter boxes for the main street of the local central business district, and more.

The Menz Shed is a great place for blokes to learn new skills. Retired builders are found teaching retired engineers some of their skills and visa-versa, retired accountants show a plethora of skills they never had the opportunity to learn in their working life. Many Sheds also have ladies sessions, where husbands and others teach women many skills which may have always mystified them. We are open to that.

Many couples find that after retirement, the shock of suddenly being with each other every waking (and sleeping) hour can cause friction, so the Menz Shed is a great place to escape the stresses of “underfoot syndrome”, and the result is that women are among the most ardent supporters of Sheds. Men are known to have smaller circles of friends than women, so the Shed offers opportunities to foster new friendships outside the social circles their partners establish.

How does the Nationwide MenzShed Organisation work with us?

MENZSHED New Zealand is the body which represents and supports Sheds nationwide. They aim to:

• Bring Sheds together to enable them to establish relationships and collaborate where appropriate.
• Promote the concept to communities without Sheds, and support groups as they go through the establishment phase – and this includes linking new groups with nearby established Sheds.
• Establish relationships with sponsors nationally. This function is also carried out at a local level by Sheds themselves.
• Encourage Sheds to act autonomously. They encourage Sheds to make their own decisions and rules – however they remain available to offer advice on this if asked.
• Operate at minimal cost to Sheds. The only cost incurred by Sheds is the $25.00 annual membership fee. Our Busmenz Shed is a member of the National organisation.
• They organise national conferences, which are currently on a one-year cycle.
• And they allow Sheds to drive the organisation rather than the organisation driving the Sheds.