Why a National Association of Men's Sheds?
Our Mission is to serve and connect Men’s Sheds across Canada.
We support existing Men's Sheds in Canada and help establish new Sheds in additional communities.
Why should your Shed join Men's Shed Canada?
We believe that together we are stronger:
Men's Shed Canada (MSC) is new. The list of benefits we want to deliver is long but not yet real. We are working on that on many fronts. With your input, encouragement and help, we will offer our member sheds valuable services.
Through the collective wisdom of all Sheds, we are here to assist you and your Men’s Shed as you organize and grow.
We intend to help build a community of sheds where information, experience and perhaps a bit of wisdom are shared. This community of sheds will provide encouragement and admiration in equal measure during the inevitable ups and downs every Shed will experience over the years.
Membership in MSC is voluntary. We have to earn your mandate. One of our founding principles is that MSC will have no control over or responsibility for a local Shed. Your Shed is totally under your control.
Our structure is simple: one-Shed, one-vote.
Still, we recognize that Sheds naturally want to associate with other Sheds of similar geography, interest, or life's realities.
The reasons associations will form are many:
Some Sheds may wish to exchange ideas with other Sheds based on their reason for being (e.g. car repairs, boat building, bicycle repair, vs woodworking)
The challenges and opportunities of rural vs city-based sheds are different. So will be the most viable solutions.
Then there are our sheds in the Far North, with unique challenges and virtues. We remain flexible and open to the associations those Shed will find that work for them.
We have studied how this is addressed in other countries. However, Canada is a vast cold place. So the Australian solution of any site with a small storage shack and a lean-to for shade is a potential workshop, which won't work when it's -30 degrees C here in Canada.
There is much to be admired in the UK, Ireland and NZ solutions, but given our population density and a reach of 6.5 time zones, we must find our path. Therefore, MSC will provide Web-based tools to help Sheds form online communities or interest groups along any line a group of Shed deems beneficial.
Unlike most countries where Health Care is organized nationally, in Canada, the kinds of government agencies that might help Men's Sheds are typically organized provincially, so we need provincial voices to work with those agencies while holding to the one-Shed one-vote imperative.
These associations will be important, but none will have a vote as we are a bottom-up one-Shed one-vote organization.
Make sure your voice is heard. Make sure you benefit from our collective work. Become a member.
Our Objectives
- Represent the interests of Men's Sheds nationally;
- Support individual Sheds & building a network among them;
- Maintain a national registry of established and emerging sheds and CMSA member Sheds in Canada;
- Support Provincial Associations of Men's Sheds where they exist;
- Raise public awareness of the social, physical and emotional health benefits of Men's Sheds;
- Provide support and resources for emerging Sheds in Canada;
- Provide benefits to member Sheds such as discounted group insurance rates;
- Develop strategic alliances with key organizations; and
- Organizing national conferences (in person or virtual) as needed/wanted
