A letter from the president for the start of the 2024-2025 session of events:-
To all members and guests,
Starting the Leeds Association of Engineers’ 160th Year, I would firstly like to thank the past president Ross Town, what a cracking job he has done stepping in as he did, then to find himself running for several years, seeing us through Covid and not the best of times with the country’s economy being as was (and possibly still is). Also the council, in no particular order, John B, Andrew, Ian B, Ian S, Steve, Alex, Barrie, Gordon, Malcolm, Jennifer, Harry & Graham who has stepped in to become the vice president, without these we wouldn’t have got through the past years as well as we have.
160 years is quite a feat with not too many companies never mind engineers lasting that long. Gone are the days that we could start at 16 years old (and indeed younger) and go right through to 65 (well it could now be 67 and counting). Engineers are an interesting bunch. I don’t know if you agree but I think engineers are all a bit “puddled” or “Rangoon”. Now you may not be familiar with these terms but engineers seem to have a sense of humour that appears to be lacking in other professions.
Well what is the future for Leeds Association of Engineers ? Could we manage another 160 years ? Well, I will leave that to you to ponder, but engineering is still going. We haven’t been taken over by the robotics department yet. Artificial intelligence (AI) can’t think like an engineer as yet, but hold on, engineers drive them anyway, so the future must be looking good. Hopefully you think engineering is as strong as ever, with rumours of work coming back home. I personally think with the right backing engineering will carry on. This doesn’t mean we will have the massive manufacturing base in Leeds or Yorkshire, but we will have quality, as those who have survived the past few years are obviously strong enough and fit for purpose.
So no matter what type of engineering, I believe the association will be active, whether this can be done without your help, well that’s very doubtful, as without it’s members, we aren’t worth a carrot. So can I ask for your help, suggestions, criticisms are welcome (but my industrial language may offend !). We need to carry on, with talks, lectures, visits, increase our membership, socialise more, pass knowledge on, because that’s how we gained ours.
On that note, I have thrown in the towel on the working front, a little brassed off with ‘FE’ (no not iron) it’s a acronym used in education standing for further education, education is full of acronyms and being in my early 60’s these non engineering acronyms drove me potty, so I have taken early retirement, passed my knowledge (don’t laugh !) on to those who were interested, with hope they found it interesting.
In my past few years doing my best to teach engineering, very few students seemed to have any interest, full time students struggled to appreciate what an engineering factory was, not having had any engineering taught at school and most been forced into further education for one reason or another. The apprentices, well they were the lucky ones, they might not think so, with some companies, paying very little, but other companies being very generous, realising we all have to start somewhere.
The future is with our younger members, we have Harry in his first year (starting his second soon) at the University of Leeds. Harry survived my unorthodox teaching methods, joined our council and will become an important and excellent engineer, yes you heard that first. Then we have our three apprentices, Isaac, Martins and Cameron, these guys are a bit of a rarity, they are passionate about their engineering. All four I have met while teaching so I hadn’t wasted my time at all. These guys may well be the future of the association, no pressure then.
Please support the association, we have an excellent group of engineers with hundreds of years of experience. We have a small but strong association with others outside, who sponsor our events and without them we wouldn’t have the golf tournament. We have some great engineers in the association from 18 year olds to 80 odd year olds, but best of all I have a lot of good friends thanks to engineering.
Regards, John Aldersley – President – Leeds Association of Engineers.
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