THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.30 pm on Thursday 3rd April 2025 at The Corner House Club, Leeds.
1. Attendance. J. Aldersley in the chair with G. Roper, M. Murray, I. Scholes, H. Soutar, J. Bentley, A. Rogers, R. Town and I. Blakeley.
2. Apologies for absence. B. Yates, J. Burton, A. Kibler, G. Toulson, S. Stacey, C. Pinder, I. Auty and M. Golubevs.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, dated 6th March 2025 were approved & signed.
4. Matters Arising. Mr. Murray commented that in the March minutes it said that Mr. Pinder would be using part of the collection he was to receive at the Annual Dinner to fund the joining fees of people he had introduced to the association. However, as he has received a great deal of equipment, material and training from M. A. Ford, one of our corporate members it was decided that the collection should go to charity as we have done in previous years. Mr. Pinder will be given a prize of his choice for winning the student award.
5. Treasurers Report. Mr. Kibler was unable to attend the meeting but had sent his financial report by email. The full list of transactions is listed below.
| Date | Transaction | Debit | Credit |
| 04/Mar/25 | Dinner – M. Golubevs | – | 20.00 |
| 04/Mar/25 | Dinner – I. Auty | – | 20.00 |
| 05/Mar/25 | Dinner – N. Cobbold | – | 64.00 |
| 07/Mar/25 | Dinner – J. Shergill | – | 32.00 |
| 07/Mar/25 | Dinner – H. Kingswell | – | 64.00 |
| 10/Mar/25 | Dinner – R. Town | – | 96.00 |
| 10/Mar/25 | Dinner – D. Bannister | – | 96.00 |
| 12/Mar/25 | Dinner – P. Baker (cheque) | – | 64.00 |
| 12/Mar/25 | Dinner – E. Atkinson | – | 64.00 |
| 12/Mar/25 | Dinner – Mandate Solutions | – | 192.00 |
| 13/Mar/25 | Dinner – J. Bentley | – | 64.00 |
| 14/Mar/25 | Subs – R. Town | – | 20.00 |
| 15/Mar/25 | Dinner – N. Burchall | – | 64.00 |
| 15/Mar/25 | Dinner – Raffle Prizes (by A.K) | 24.19 | – |
| 24/Mar/25 | Dinner – C. Pinder (students) | – | 40.00 |
| 24/Mar/25 | Subs – C. Pinder | – | 4.00 |
| 29/Mar/25 | Annual Dinner Meals (The Manor) | 1567.50 | – |
| 30/Mar/25 | Tips – Annual Dinner (Waitresses) | 40.00 | – |
Balance of Accounts was reported but not published here.
He said in addition to the above that although subscription payments are better than last year, there are still unpaid subscriptions amounting to around £300.
6. Correspondence. Mr. Aldersley said he has been in contact with a number of companies trying to obtain factory visits or lectures. These included Sulzer Pumps and Reg Paley (contact at Sulzer) responded positively saying they will accommodate us if they can but we need to give them a potential date. October 2025 was suggested. Mr. Aldersley sent an email to Marston Radiators but had no response as yet. He said Ben Wilson of MPM Mouding Company (a member of Leeds Manufacturing Alliance) attended our factory visit to WDS and offered us a visit to their manufacturing plant. He has also chased a previous email to Millers Oils and is awaiting a reply. Steve Gledhill, owner of Mandate Systems, on hearing of the financial challenges facing our student members in entering engineering challenge events has asked if he could help in any way. Mr. Aldersley and Mr. Roper will visit him to see what he is proposing.
7. Membership. Mr. Murray has received a number of membership applications, which accumulated whilst he was on his vacation in Spain, which he is now processing. He did say that he needs the new journal as soon as possible to post out to the new members. Mr. Soutar (student member of council) said that offering student membership at £2 per year gives the impression that it is something that is not worthwhile. He said we should discuss this at the A.G.M. and feels that £5 should be a minimum price for student membership but £10 would be more realistic. Mr. Aldersley told us that the garage he uses to maintain his car is owned by a gentleman called Craig Dixon. He said Craig’s son, who is still only fourteen years old, harbours an ambition to work for McLaren Motorsport. Craig has bought his son a lathe and milling machine which his son has learned to operate. Mr. Aldersley has offered to mentor the boy on the machinery and proposed that he could attend some of our lectures / factory visits. Council agreed that this would be acceptable as long as he is accompanied by his legal guardian.
8. Proposed New Student of the Year Award. Mr. Soutar is in the early stages of developing a new method of selecting student(s) of the year. However, he is trying to do this whilst attending university and of course his university work takes priority. He told us that through the university he attended a conference about Space Technology at Sheffield University. The Sheffield students are designing a Mars Rover which will be built and entered in an international competition. The teams reaching the international finals have to go through qualifying stages and are invited to enter the finals. He is currently trying to get a design team together at Leeds University and is looking for support from us, this could be financial sponsorship (which would be limited) and the use of our connections to industry for potential financial backers. He is currently trying to put together a proposal in order to secure a development budget from Leeds University but of course he needs to show that the team he is trying to put together have a credible support network. Mr. Town (our immediate past President) said his employer Flowtech might be able to help with the supply of pneumatic / automation products.
9. Current Programme. Everything is going to plan and our next event is the A.G.M. followed by a talk by Andrew Ross. The Church Service is booked in May and the Solstice event will be Pentanque (Boules) at the venue in Heckmondwike, used previously.
10. Next Session. Mr. Aldersley will speak to John Pankhurst of Keighley Association of Engineers to see if he can help secure a visit to Carnaud Metalbox (CMB). Louise Brown, Managing Director of Greyhound Box Company has offered us a factory visit and we are hoping to book this for September 2025. We have a firm offer of a factory visit from Chris Edmonson, Director of CPL Precision Engineering at Thorpe Arch. Mr. Roper will contact Dr. Ian Greaves and try persuade him to give us a talk about working within the nuclear industry.
11. Website. Mr. Toulson said by email that we should try get photos from all events whenever we are allowed to do so. It was particularly disappointing that no one thought to take photographs of guests at the Annual Dinner. However, the good news is that Mr. Soutar and Mr. Pinder have photographs to submit to the website.
12. Golf. Nothing to report.
13. Annual Dinner. From Mr. Kibler’s email he reported that the Annual Dinner had been enjoyed by all, and guests thought the food was excellent. The entertainment was a welcome inclusion. He has provisionally booked the same venue for 18th April 2026 for next year’s Annual Dinner.
14. Annual Church Service. 11th May 2025.
15. Journal. Mr Bentley said the journal is complete and extends to 45 pages. We agreed to have a batch of 150 journals printed.
Any other Business. Having no other business Mr. Aldersley closed the meeting.
.
……………………………………………President.……………………………….….. Date