THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.30 pm on Thursday 2nd October 2025 at The Corner House Club Leeds.
1. Attendance. J. Aldersley in the chair with G. Roper, M. Murray, C. Pinder, J. Bentley, A. Kibler, A. Rogers, N. Burchall, S. Wilkinson and I. Blakeley.
2. Apologies for absence. R. Town, S. Stacey, J. Burton, G. Toulson, I. Auty , H. Soutar and M. Golubevs.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, dated 4th September 2025 were approved & signed.
4. Matters Arising. None.
5. Treasurers Report. Mr. Kibler said there had been few transactions since the last meeting, these are listed below.
| Date | Transaction | Debit | Credit |
| 01/Sep/25 | Transfer of funds from Savings Account | – | 200.00 |
| 04/Sep/25 | Corner House Club Meeting Rooms | 225.00 | |
| 26/Sep/25 | Meeting Room Church Hall Morley | 50.00 |
Balance of Accounts was reported but not published here.
He concluded by saying that we need to send out letter/email for members to renew their subscriptions.
6. Correspondence. Mr. Aldersley has been in contact with Lee Darvill of Bulmer & Lumb with a view to getting them to allow us a factory visit. He has also been trying to get a visit or lecture from Airedale International who design and manufacture air conditioning systems. Mr. Wilkinson will pursue this as he is in day to day contact with them through his job. Mr. Burchill will pursue Halifax Fan for either a factory visit or lecture as he has a working relationship with them. Mr Pinder recently attended a machine tool exhibition in Germany and had several conversations with David Baggaley who heads Leeds Manufacturing Alliance (a group that links manufacturing companies and educators in Leeds). Leeds Manufacturing Alliance is linked with many of the companies we are trying to reach out to. Mr. Pinder said they are hopeful of getting sponsorship from Lang Technik for the World Skills competition particularly if the Leeds Manufacturing Alliance can bring the final to Leeds in the near future.
7. Membership. Mr. Murray said there is little to report. He is still hopeful of recruiting a new member who he knows through the Petanque Bowling Club. Requests for subscriptions will be going out next week. The student rate will be increased to £5 as agreed with the student members on council.
8. Proposed New Student of the Year Award. On hold, current plans are to sponsor the Leeds University Orion Project.
9. Orion Project “The Mars Rover”. Reports are that things are going well. They have recruited a number of students and have produced a number of preliminary drawings. We are hopeful that our student members at Leeds City College may be able to assist by carrying out machining on either the college machinery or employers’ machinery, or hopefully M.A. Ford, who sponsor Mr. Pinder, might donate some machine time. Of course all this needs to be negotiated. Mr. Aldersley will contact Mr. Soutar to discuss the level of sponsorship we are to give and what promotional opportunity this will give the Leeds Association of Engineers.
10. Current Programme. Mr. Aldersley has been talking to his contact at Sulzer and was told that due to current changes they are unable to allow us a factory visit until early next year. Our October event will be a visit to MPM Mouldings in Bramley who design and manufacture plastic mouldings and tooling for their manufacture. In November we visit Carnaud Metal Box in Wortley. Our contact there is John Crabtree a member of Keighley Association of Engineers. We need to arrange lectures/visits from January through to May inclusive. Mr. Murray said he will try contacting Fox’s Biscuits who have a night shift so it could be a possibility. Middleton Railway was also suggested and Mr. Kibler said he will speak to Neil Cobbold, who has mentioned previously that he might be able to get us a visit to Finnings/Catterpillar. Mr. Aldersley will contact Robert Farrell of Reliance Gears regarding a proposed visit.
11. Next Session. We need ideas for where to go and subjects/proposals for lectures.
12. Website. Mr. Toulson has brought the website up to date and added new content from Mr. Pinder and Mr. Wilkinson, which helps to maintain interest. Mr. Aldersley has asked Mr. Wilkinson and Mr. Pinder if they can create us a profile on linked in, this will give us contact with people in the engineering industry and let people know we are still around. Mr. Pinder said he has already created the account, Mr. Wilkinson said a good way to get contacts is by re-posting information/content from people we have visited or have given us talks.
13. Golf. In Mr. Stacey’s absence, Mr Aldersley relayed a conversation he had with Mr. Stacey saying there is nothing really to report other than it is becoming more difficult to get a golf day at a reasonable price. However, he has managed to secure a booking for next year with an increase of just a few pounds. It should be noted here that we have agreed to give a free entry in the 2026 Golf tournament to Kally Shergill in lieu of his work on the LAE website.
14. Annual Dinner. Nothing further to report. We did discuss keeping the format the same and asking council members to provide raffle prizes as they have previously.
15. Annual Church Service. It will fall on Mr. Roper to do the reading this time.
16. Journal. Mr. Aldersley said Mr. Bentley had done a marvellous job with the journal once again but it will be his last time as editor. We should look for someone else to take it on. However, it is five years since the previous journal went out. Mr. Bentley has the current journal/template on CD. It was suggested that he brings that to the next council meeting so it can be transferred onto a more sustainable media.
17. Morley Church Hall Closure. We have been told that our meeting venue will no longer be available after May 2026. Can all council members think of alternatives?
Any Other Business. Having no other business Mr. Aldersley closed the meeting.
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