Welcome to the Coolum Women’s Shed Thanks for your membership application. According to the rules of our constitution your membership application must be approved by our management committee. However please assume that unless you hear otherwise, your membership application has been accepted. Memberships run on a rolling 12 month basis. you may collect your membership card next time you visit the shed. You can now book onto any of our activities at the members rate. For some activities, members are also given priority booking access.
What’s on? You can book onto activities directly from helloclub. It really helps everyone if you can book online for activities so we know who is coming. If there are not enough people registered we will cancel the activity and transfer or refund your booking.
Software and passwords We use two main services :
Hello Club: Activity bookings and membership software
Calendar view of upcoming activities
Book and pay for activities
Buy and manage membership
Create your own username and password or use SSO.
Band: Community Forum Members only forum, similar to facebook – chat, no ads, doesn’t sell your personal information. A good place to ask questions, share photos etc. When you buy membership you receive an invite to band in your welcome email. You will need to download the app or access via your web browser.
You don't have to have the app, but it is a place where members can chat, plan and connect. If you can use Facebook, you can use Band.
Create your own username and password or use SSO.
Other options to keep in touch
Our latest news is on our website and also emailed directly to your inbox unless you have opted out of email. You can unsubscribe at any time, although you will still be contacted about important information such as general meetings.
Our Facebook page is www.facebook.com/thecoolumwomensshed. A quick caution about Facebook – our members are sometimes frustrated that they don’t find out about workshops, events or cancellations until it is too late. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t always show you everything we post, and we don't always see your posts, comments or messages.
If you have a general query for the shed, the best option is to email us or ask on Band (our private version of Facebook).
Get more involved Is there something you want to see happening at the shed? Maybe you have a skill you would love to share? Members that volunteer to share their skills are the heart of the Women’s Shed – it means we can keep prices low and raise money. It can even be as simple as deciding you want to learn a skill and seeing who will join you - accountability is a great motivator :-). Or you might just want to find some other people with a similar interest who want to meet on a regular basis.
Coordinate an activity - be the person who turns up, opens the shed and signs people in ( ideally two people for each activity).
Participate in working bees - learn how to make things for yourself, and make a few for the shed to sell.
Run a fundraiser workshop - with yourself as facilitator or by finding a facilitator. These tend to be 'one-off' events rather than a regular commitment.
Run an information session for our members - for example a talk on a specific subject. We don't charge our members for these sessions and they can be interesting - especially the questions and answers.
We take care of the IT support including putting events on our website and booking system. Our activity proposal helps to identify what we need to do, how we will fund the activity and ensures that we complete a risk assessment.
You need general manager approval to:
Ask for or accept donations of equipment/materials/services
Approach local companies for member discounts and deals
You need management committee approval to :
Approach companies for sponsorship.
Apply for grants.
Run activities that are not expected to cover their costs.
NB our insurance only covers volunteers - if someone is being paid they need to have their own public liability insurance. We can still cover any costs for material or equipment .
Other useful information The Coolum Women's Shed was founded in 2018 and is entirely run by volunteers. We do not have any paid employees. Sometimes we receive feedback that a requested activity hasn't happened yet, so please remember that activities only run if people put their hands up to organise them. If you are passionate about seeing an activity at the shed, please consider offering to help run it. If you like the look of a new activity please support it - we cancel activities if there is no interest from members so that we can use our time on other things.
We understand that our members have other commitments and we ask that you help when you can, but please don’t feel obligated – the Women’s Shed is supposed to be fun 😊. We try to keep costs low so that our members can try a variety of activities, most activities are suitable for beginners unless stated. Most activities are women only, unless explicitly stated that men are welcome.
We do not own the building at 26 Research Street. We hire it by the hour from Coolum Men’s Shed. At the moment our main strategy is to establish the systems and processes to support this so that volunteers have more time to work towards having our own space. We are currently working on a strategy to fund our own workshop space, and the speed that we can achieve this depends on our capacity to fundraise, whilst keeping activity costs low.
Please respect the privacy of other members – treat them as you would any good friend – do not post photos of them on social media without their permission, and please respect anything that is told to you in confidence.
The legal stuff When you apply for membership we are legally obliged to tell you that we have $20mn public liability insurance. Our constitution is called 'The Coolum Women's Shed Charter'. It is available to view here. The Women's Shed is an incorporated not-for-profit association. Our official name is 'The Coolum Women's Shed Inc'.