Queer Sheds Network Member’s Charter v1.1
This Charter sets out the shared values, commitments, and guiding principles of the Queer Sheds Network, created through co-design with the founding group of members in 2025.
The Charter supports the growth of a strong, connected, and diverse community of autonomous Queer Sheds across Ireland and beyond. Every shed that signs the charter joins the network and becomes part of a wider movement, not one of control, but of mutual support, shared learning, and collective care.
1. Purpose of the Charter
This Charter is a living document, created to:
Celebrate the diversity of local Queer Sheds while providing a shared foundation.
Guide new and existing sheds on how to connect with the network.
Hold us to our core values as part of a wider network.
Support us to be accountable to each other.
Provide clarity and transparency that will help us grow together through mutual care and support.
2. Core Values
All sheds in the Queer Sheds Network commit to upholding and embodying the following values:
Care: We centre emotional safety, consent, and community care.
Belonging: We welcome all queer identities, backgrounds, ages, and abilities.
Autonomy: Each shed is self-governed and free to shape its own culture and skillsharing programme.
Solidarity: We show up for one another and for wider struggles for justice.
Non-hierarchy: We strive for shared power, inclusion, and collective decision-making.
Regeneration: We aim to nurture each other, our communities, and the natural world.
Joy: We celebrate queerness as a source of creativity, humour, beauty, and resilience.
3. What It Means to Be a Queer Shed
To be part of the Queer Sheds Network, each shed agrees to:
Identify as a “Queer Shed”, a queer-led group and a space for skill sharing.
Have clear roles and responsibilities within the group that are communicated to all, and nominate a representative to the Queer Sheds Member’s Committee.
Commit to inclusion and safety for all queer people whilst remaining open to all who feel connected to queer values, regardless of how they identify.
Operate as a not-for-profit or community-led initiative (informal or formal).
Offer hands-on, skill-sharing, cultural or communal activities that are grounded in the needs and interests of the local queer community.
Foster collaboration and care, not competition.
Seek partnership with local peer organisations whilst operating independently of their governance structures and avoiding conflicts of interest.
Adopt a name using the format “Queer Shed [Placename]” to show your participation in the network and leave space for other sheds in each region, while remaining open to change so that others can also create sheds in the same area if needed.
Be honest about conflict where it occurs and seek to address it early with care. Where conflict is unresolved, seek support from Network peers to avoid long term ongoing disruption to the group.
Host events and meetups in spaces that are non-profit and non-substance-centred.
Consult with the Queer Sheds Network Committee before pitching for or accepting corporate sponsorship, to ensure network ethos alignment.
Represent the shed and network at public events, speaking and media opportunities in a way that reflects the shared values and ethos of the network.
4. The Federated Model: Local Autonomy, Shared Network
Each Queer Shed is self-managed and free to decide on its structure, membership, activities, and decision-making style. The network exists to connect, not control. The Queer Sheds Network project, founded by Common Knowledge, exists to provide long term stewardship, facilitation, support and services to the network, in consultation with its members and in line with funding and resources available. The type of resources provided by the Queer Sheds Network project may include:
Access to useful approaches, a shared online platform, shared resources, templates, advice, and facilitation.
Collective visibility through a shared map, directory of people and sheds, and communication channels.
Sharing and celebrating best practice, learning from our successes and challenges
Invitations to national gatherings, workshops, campaigns, and training.
Opportunities to co-create shared projects.
Peer support and facilitation in times of challenge or conflict.
Advocacy for national recognition and funding of Queer Sheds both at a national and local level.
Securing of inspirational speakers for Queer Shed network events
Exploring potential for network-level funding opportunities
Development where possible of shared services eg shared insurance models.
Being added to the shared directory, channels, and support system.
Sheds are encouraged, but not required, to:
Plan for the creation of the shed considering activities, funding, governance and communication
Host events or activities at least quarterly.
Send 1-2 representatives to occasional online network meetings.
Participate in an annual Queer Sheds festival or showcase (in person or online).
Share learnings, resources, or invitations with the wider network.
Use the Queer Sheds name, logo and language in a way that reflects the shared values of the movement.
Oversee the shed in a democratic manner with roles that rotate at maximum every three years.
5. Joining the Network
New sheds can join the network by:
Submitting a simple expression of interest form (name, location, purpose).
Having at least three organising members.
Signing the Queer Sheds Network Manifesto and Charter, committing to the values outlined.
Participating in a short onboarding conversation with a member of the network circle.
Membership is based on participation and shared values, not formal status.
6. Accountability and Conflict
We hold accountability with care. If a shed’s actions go against the core values of the network or cause harm to others, a process of reflection, dialogue, and support will be offered first. Only in cases of repeated or serious harm may a shed be removed from the network.
We aim to develop and maintain:
A Code of Practice to support safer spaces and consent culture.
A national Queer Sheds Network Committee to represent and connect the network.
A peer-led conflict support system that any shed can call on.
Tools for reflection, feedback, and repair.
7. How We Evolve
This Charter is a living document, to be reviewed annually with input from all member sheds. The network grows through collective imagination, shared learning, and ongoing adaptation.
In joining the Queer Sheds Network, we agree to:
Uphold the values of care, inclusion, autonomy, and collective joy.
Contribute what we can, when we can, in our own way.
Remain open, curious, and in solidarity with others across the network.
Help create a movement that is rooted in belonging and built to last.