THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting + Presidents Address at the Scandura Meeting Hall Cleckheaton 7.30pm on Thursday 25th April 2019
1. Attendance– Eighteen members of Leeds Association of Engineers attended the meeting. Mr. Aldersley (President) opened the A.G.M. at 7.30pm. The meeting was followed by a talk by Mr. Aldersley where he reflected upon his life working in the engineering industry.
2. Apologies for absence. Mr. Murray.
3. Minutes of the previous A.G.M. Held on 26th April 2018 were given to all members. Mr. Aldersley proposed that these should be accepted as a true record of the previous A.G.M. This proposal was seconded by Mr. Rogers and approved by a show of hands.
4. Matters Arising. None.
5. Nominations for Council. Mr. Aldersley said that our constitution states that council members serve a period of two years after which they must resign and re-apply if they wish to remain on council. This gives the opportunity for other members to take up office and bring forward new ideas. This year Mr. Murray, Mr. Shergill and Mr. Blakeley all offered their resignations but said they are prepared to continue on council, if the membership wishes them to do so. Having no volunteers from other members Mr. Toulson proposed that Mr. Murray, Mr. Shergill and Mr. Blakeley be re-elected this was seconded by Mr. Kibler. All were voted back on council with a show of hands from the membership.
6. Nominations for Vice President. In the absence of any volunteers for this role Mr. Aldersley said, he would be prepared to be interim Vice President if the membership wished him to do this. This was agreed with a show of hands.
7. Confirmation of Trustees. Mr. Aldersley said that we need to confirm the names of the trustees at each A.G.M. and minute this for the bank. The names of the trustees are John Bentley, Kevin Hegarty and Ian Blakeley. He asked that the membership vote to accept that these people continue in their current roles. This was done with a show of hands.
8. Website. Mr.Toulson said we are getting more hits on the website and he does get enquiries regarding subscriptions for notifications. Costs remain low and this proves to be a good way of communicating with our membership. He commented that, in order to keep the website interesting, he is always looking for new content so if anyone has anything of interest please could they submit it.
9. Membership Report. In the absence of Mr. Murray, Mr. Aldersley read out a report which Mr. Murray had prepared. He emphasised that this is a report on the membership 2017 – 2018.
The report stated that this has not been a good year for the association, with a number of resignations. It stated that we must all try and recruit young engineers in order to secure the future of the association.
He said that on the positive side we have decided to offer companies and individuals who give us either lectures or visits one year’s free membership. Hopefully we will retain some as members once their free year is over.
This year’s membership breakdown is as follows :-
Corporate, Appris (from visit)
Honorary Life, 3 (Mr. Hegerty, Mr. Rogers & Mr. Bentley awarded for service to the association)
Honorary, 21
Life, 0
Full, 51 (one of which awarded for giving us a lecture)
Resigned or Deceased, 7
Total 69 Members.
Mr Aldersley concluded by proposing that Mr.Toulson be awarded Honorary Life membership for his long and continued service to the association, this was seconded by Mr. Rogers and accepted by a show of hands.
10. Treasurers Report. Copies of the accounts for the year ending 31st October 2018 had been circulated to all members present. Mr. Kibler said that the accounts had not been verified this year due to time constraints for Mr. Shergill. He said that the deficit looked high at £1428.42 but this was mainly due to £1,000 being transferred into the current account.
He closed by saying we should thank Mr. Stacey for organising and managing the golf day. He manages to bring in a good deal of sponsorship and the tournament promotes our association in a very positive way.
Mr. Toulson proposed that the accounts should be accepted and this was seconded by Mr. Rogers and was agreed by a show of hands by the members present
11. Annual Dinner. The annual dinner was well received with positive comments about the food and the venue. Unfortunately, numbers were down due to it falling during school holidays. We need to address this in the future. Mr. Kibler said we should thank Mr. Stacey for securing us a 25% discount on the bar bill.
12. Annual Golf Tournament. It was reported that the tournament was well received by all who attended. The sponsors were outstanding. This was the 80th running of the Braime Trophy. This year Mitchell Fox elected to take their customers to the horse racing instead of our golf tournament which represented a significant loss in numbers. Mr. Stacey managed to get 31 people to attend which proved to be a nice number. Mr. Stacey is looking for sponsorship for this year’s tournament which will be at Cobble Hall.
13. Investiture. Mr. Aldersley handed over the ribbon and badge of office to Mr. Town who has been appointed our new President. Mr. Town thanked Mr. Aldersley for all his efforts in his role as President and thanked him for agreeing to pick up the duties of Vice President once again.
14. Proposed Summer Visit. Mr.Toulson is trying to secure a visit on the 18th July to British Steel Scunthorpe. This will possibly include a ride on a Steam Locomotive. More information will be posted on the website and sent out be email.
Any Other Business. Mr.Town (New President) reminded people of the forthcoming annual church service and the solstice walk before closing the A.G.M. at 8.00pm and announced our speaker for the evening Mr. Aldersley.
…………………………………..President. …………….. ………. Date