THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.30pm on Thursday 7th April 2016 at the Cornerhouse Club Leeds.
1. Attendance. B. J. Yates, President in the chair with, J. Aldersley, J. S. Shergill, I. Scholes, M. S. Murray, A. Rogers, S. Stacey, A. Kibler, H. Kingswell, G. Toulson, J. Bentley & K. J. Hegarty.
2. Apologies for Absence. I. A. Blakeley.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting. Dated 3rd March 2016 were approved & signed.
4. Matters Arising. None.
5. Treasurers Report. Mr. Bentley reported the following transactions:-
Current Account:-
Payments:
Scandinavia Trust – Room Hire £81.00
Barrie Yates – Hull Dinner Expenses £78.48
Gordon Toulson – Website £43.19
Receipts:
Subscriptions £75.00
Cheques and Cash for JCB Visit £175.00
Savings Account:- No change – (Balances not published)
6. Correspondence. Mr. Yates expressed his frustration with the IET and IEE, having had no feedback from either group with a view to sharing event information. The LAE has invited their members to our meetings, especially the prestige lectures we have held but this has not been reciprocated. Mr. Murray said he would canvass members in the next newsletter to ask if any LAE members were also members of the other groups in order to have closer links. Mr. Rogers said he would contact Brian Firth of the IET to forge closer links with that group.
7. Membership. Mr. Yates said that next session he would put out a ‘catch-all’ email with a view to encouraging existing members to find new members to join.
8. Current Programme. Mr. Yates reminded council of the special visit to the manufacturing facility of JCB on the 26th May. Mr. Bentley said that he would need visitors to pay him the admission fee by 3rd May due to the need to pay JCB in advance. Mr. Yates read out the list of names for the visit to JCB. There is a forthcoming visit to Sinclair Harding (clockmakers) and currently there is no limit on the number of visitors. Mr. Toulson asked if Optare had a limit on numbers for the visit on 25th April. Mr. Murray advised that they had set a limit at 24 visitors and preference would be given to LAE members. Mr. Toulson asked if the Church Service date had been confirmed for 8th May. Mr. Yates advised that it was not.
9. Next Session. Mr. Yates said that he wanted to relinquish full responsibility for arranging the programme of events in the future. Mr. Shergill offered to help and share the task with the assistance of Mr. Yates. Mr. Yates suggested a visit to a firm in Keighley producing cardboard tubes. Mr. Rogers proposed that future events need not be biased towards engineering but to be entertaining for our members. Mr. Aldersley proposed a visit to Siemens Power Generation in Stourton. Mr. Stacey offered to contact Gerry Allen of Mitchell Fox Ltd. to ask for suggestions for lectures and visits. Mr. Kingswell suggested Airedale Air Conditioning for a possible visit.
10. Website. Mr. Toulson reported that he had paid the website hosting company £43.19 to host our website for the next year. Mr. Bentley reimbursed Mr. Toulson who advised that an invoice for the Domain Name was not expected until May 2017.
11. Journal. Mr. Bentley reminded council that it had been agreed that publication of the journal be delayed until September. He requested an up to date membership list and Mr. Murray agreed to provide one.
12. Golf. Mr. Stacey advised that arrangements were in place for the June tournament. He would start requesting sponsorship and to contact Alan Braime to confirm his support. Mr. Stacey advised us that Gerry Allen was retiring this year and to mark his contribution to the golf days he proposed the presentation of a ‘bottle’ as thanks. Mitchell Fox, with Gerry’s encouragement would be bringing 20 guests, this being a large proportion of the group. Gerry’s successor at Mitchell Fox, Steve Richards, would be encouraged to continue the good work. Mr. Stacey informed us that Richard Thompson had regularly brought a party of four to play in the tournament.
13. Annual Dinner. Mr. Rogers proposed a closing date for applications for dinner tickets on 10th April in order to advise the venue. He reported that currently there were 65 or 66 guests. Mr. Yates asked if Bob Bray (clockmakers) had responded and after a negative reply offered to contact him. Mr. Kibler advised that the cost of the entertainers would be £250. Mr. Rogers requested that Mr. Bentley bring along funds to the dinner to settle this account. He advised that invited top table guests Chris Arundel (Hull) and John Richardson (Keighley) had cancelled. The singers would be seated on the top table. A ‘running timetable’ was handed to Mr. Bentley for his toastmaster duties. The Lord Mayor’s assistant had asked Mr. Rogers if there was to be a raffle with a charitable contribution and he confirmed this. Mr. Rogers confirmed that the two hosts from the Marton Mills visit would be attending the dinner with their wives. Mr. Scholes offered to take photographs at the dinner. Mr. Rogers proposed that future dinners be much less formal whilst still being ‘dressy’ events. He questioned the attendance of the Lord Mayor and other invited guests to a dinner that was only supported by a handful of members. Mr. Yates asked for a show of hands to support his proposal and 10 voted. Mr. Murray who did not vote for the proposal said that if the dinner was to become such as that held by Keighley engineers then it loses prestige. He expressed the view that it was important to keep the close link with the Lord Mayor, and the Church. Mr. Rogers said that we pay for the dinners of the Lord Mayor, the attendant and other top table guests. Also, Mr. Gledhill (LAE member) had regularly used the dinner to entertain business associates and this had been effectively subsidised by the members. Further discussion on the proposal would take place in a future council meeting. Mr. Yates said that he had tried over several years to get the local newspapers interested in the dinner but to no avail. Mr. Rogers advised that we no longer required the public address system and had an interested party coming to look at the items for sale. He proposed that the association might sell the system to Mr. Shergill, who had expressed an interest. This could be discussed further once a valuation had been determined. Mr. Hegarty said that we might need the system in the future whilst Mr. Kibler thought it was not required due to the proposal that we no longer have speeches at future dinners.
Any other Business. Having no other business Mr. Yates closed the meeting.
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