Tim Mathieson as Patron of the conference, welcomed all the delegates to the conference and commented on how the shed concept has been accepted and embraced by local communities like wildfire. The Keynote, Rob Walters, spoke very candidly and eloquently about men's health and was an excellent opening speaker. His message was simple, talk to your GP and be open and honest. At the end of the day it’s your life.

David Helmers from AMSA , who has headed up the national committee for the last 24 months as CEO spoke on how sheds should be developing levels of self sufficiency through their endeavours in the local community. In NSW they are also developing demographic clusters of geographically located sheds and in some instances like minded sheds with common interests.

Beyond Blue were ably represented and spoke of their willingness to act as a resource and information centre. They currently have limited counselling assistants.

Dr John Darcy is an excellent public speaker for Hearing Australia. His message is well known and always well received. By days end the new National Shed committee had been formed, with Mort Shearer being elected to the position of National President, with David Helmers continuing as CEO for the organization.

The dinner was attended by most delegates and we were, without doubt, well fed and well nourished.

Day one over we moved briskly and/or groggily into day two. We were reminded by the royal college of GP's to be conscious of our health in this ageing society, and also about the associated risks of prostate cancer.

John Evoy from Ireland spoke of his experiences in Ireland working with homeless youth and he has been touring sheds in Victoria with Assoc. Professor Barry Golding who is a member of Ballarat East. Barry spoke in the adjoining session, and provided valuable insight into the history of the shed movement from its origins in SA after the return of Vietnam veterans who found difficulty reassimilating into the community. The men's shed movement is now a world wide phenomenon.

After lunch day 2, David Helmers captured our attention with the men's shed at Salamander, which has placed itself between the tip and its contributors and has successfully developed an income stream from recycled goods destined for oblivion. Items as varied as tiles, concrete household items that with simple intervention are brought back to useful life, are sold through the shop front that is the Salamander shed.

One of the remaining sessions was on incorporating Aged Care facilities within sheds facilities and how successfully this match was working.

The shed Q & A talked about challenges facing the shed movement in the future such as the following:-

• DRG status with the ATO
• Insurance
• Clustering
• New Web Page

It would be remiss of me not to mention that at becs, we have already achieved all of these wish list items and many more.

It would appear that the Auspiced clustering of sheds in NSW has, to some extent, hampered the progress of the sheds and their viability to respond to market movements. Conversely, independent sheds, are not subject to any of these constraints. In fact, Melton Shed only recently received from it local member the sum of $136,000 as an establishing grant with ongoing committed support from the local Melton council.