THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.30pm on Thursday 5th December 2019 at the Corner House Club, Moortown, Leeds.
1. Attendance. J. Aldersley – Immediate Past President in the chair with, G. Roper, M. Murray, I. Scholes, A. Kibler, J. Shergill, A. Rogers, S. Stacey, J. Bentley & G. Toulson.
2. Apologies for absence. I. Blakeley, J. Burton, A. Kibler & H. Kingswell.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, dated 7th November 2019 were, approved & signed.
4. Matters Arising. None.
5. Treasurers Report. In the Treasurer’s absence Mr. Aldersley reminded us that Ms. Burton had agreed to look over the accounts for the past year. She had found a couple of discrepancies. A golf invoice for £1954.00 was shown in the accounts as £1854.00 with a £100.00 discrepancy. Also, Golf receipts were not included in the list. Mr. Stacey advised that the Golf Tournament had realised a ‘profit’ of £147.00 and in agreement with the Treasurer he had kept the amount as a ‘float’ to use for the 2020 Tournament. Transaction details were emailed to us by the treasurer to include in these minutes.
Transaction Details from 1st November 2019 to 4th December 2019
Credits:-
15th November £100.00 Lecture & Donation October
Debits :-
1st November £15.00 Subs. – Chris Stocks
5th November £420.00 Multiple Subs.
6th November £15.00 Subs. – Pollard
11th November £15.00 Subs. – G. Scholes
11th November £15.00 Subs. – M. Murray
14th November £15.00 Subs. – T. Mathers
15th November £15.00 Subs. – Mr. Garland
21st November £15.00 Subs. – ??
21st November £15.00 Subs. – A. Kibler
25th November £60.00 Subs.
6. Correspondence. Mr. Murray had received a subscription slip and £15.00 from member Ken Norris and noted that the member had also paid the treasurer £15.00 cash at one of the meetings. Mr. Murray suggested that the £15.00 cash be paid back to Ken. Mr. Aldersley had spoken with ‘UTC’ (the training company) with a view to arranging a visit but they had advised that evening visits could not be arranged. They did offer a day visit for up to four people and this was thought to be useful for the association to introduce ourselves and to find out more about UTC. Mr. Aldersley advised that the contact at UTC was Jane Fitzpatrick and that he would hope to be able to arrange a visit in the New Year, when we could tell them about our Young Engineer Award scheme.
7. Membership. Mr. Murray reported that member Mark Scaife had been elevated to ‘Life Member’ having been an ordinary member for some time. Mr. Murray had been in touch with member A. J. Davies in order to change his status from a ‘post recipient’ to receiving newsletters and other correspondence by email. Mr. Davies had since supplied an email address for this to take effect. Mr. Murray understood that an LAE member had attended one of the Keighley & Worth Valley ‘Steam Engine Repair Shop’ open days. Notice of the event had been received at very short notice by the association. Mr. Stacey advised that he had been asked by three new members if subscription notifications could be provided. Mr. Murray advised that all members had been sent a postal request for subscriptions and he offered to write to the three members to clarify the situation. He also advised that where members had set up a ‘standing order’ for subscriptions there should be no need to make a request every year. Mr. Murray said he was not entirely happy with the move towards electronic payment of subscriptions as there had been several discrepancies in the past couple of years which had taken some effort to resolve. This was mainly due to the fact that members had failed to indicate where the payment had originated in that they had not advised their name as a reference. Mr. Shergill suggested that a unique membership number to be quoted during electronic payment of subscriptions might be a possible solution. This would be discussed another time.
8. Current Programme. Mr. Aldersley said that some time ago Mr. Rogers had asked Barrie Yates if he would give a talk to the association. Barrie had said he was willing to give a talk entitled ‘Adventures of an Apprentice Spy.’ Mr. Murray suggested that it might be suitable for a lecture after the AGM in April. Mr. Aldersley had been in touch with Barrie recently and he was still in agreement to give a talk. He also reminded us that ‘Drakes’ had offered a second evening visit to another of their plants. Mr. Shergill advised that Jayanti Mistry of ‘Kennametal’ was willing to offer a follow up lecture and that he was available whenever we need him. Mr. Shergill also offered a visit to the Magistrates Court with the possibility of a meal or refreshments afterwards. He also offered to give a talk on ‘The Kilogram.’ Mr. Aldersley said we should also consider the earlier suggestion by Mr. Kibler of a visit to ‘Kirklees Light Railway.’ Mr. Murray suggested that this visit might be suitable for the ‘Solstice’ event and to be considered as the ‘Ladies Evening.’ Mr. Toulson asked if we could confirm some of these suggestions in order that he could publicise events on the website and so that Mr. Murray could have the information for a forthcoming newsletter. It was decided that on February 27th we would have Jayanti Mistry giving his lecture, on March 26th Jas Shergill would give his lecture on ‘The Kilogram’ and on May 21st we would have a visit to Drakes’ plant. Mr. Stacey said he had booked the 2020 Golf Tournament to be held on Wednesday 24th June. Mr. Toulson questioned on which day the Solstice event would be held and it was decided that Thursday 18th June was appropriate, being closest to the actual Solstice. It was also confirmed that the 2020 Anniversary Dinner is to be held on Saturday 18th April.
9. Next Session. Nothing to report.
10. Website. Nothing to report.
11. You Tube Video. Mr. Toulson said he had received a ‘link’ from Howard Kingswell for the association’s YouTube video and that this would be added to the website.
12. Golf. Mr. Stacey offered his written report as follows:- “The planned venue for next year’s golf day was to be Scarcroft. However, they have limited availability and are asking for a 15% increase on the price we paid in 2017. Therefore, I have now booked the event as a repeat of this year at Cobble Hall, for Wednesday 24th June 2020. I have booked space for 30 players for the AM team event and 39 players for the Individual PM event for the Braime Trophy and other prizes. I have paid £100 deposit to secure the day. The format for the day will be a repeat of that for the past years, with the day starting with bacon sandwiches and coffee from 9.30am, and golf starting at 10.30am. The afternoon golf will start from approx 1.30pm. The prices will be the same for the 7th year at £56 per head for the full day of golf and catering, and £50 for those taking part from lunch onwards. I can maintain the price, due to generous sponsorship from several companies who regularly support our Golf Event. I will get a price for the evening meal and presentation nearer the day, for any non-golfers to attend. This will be charged at the cost price, approx £16. I have been in contact with Gerry Allen, and he has put the event date in his diary. He is looking forward to being the “meet and greet” man for the day, as he couldn’t make it to this year’s event due to his wife taking him on a surprise trip to Scandinavia for his 70th birthday. This year was the first time that he was not available for approx 30 years.”
13. Annual Dinner. As noted earlier the dinner has been booked for Saturday 18th April 2020 at Headingley Golf Club. The Dinner Secretary had previously advised that invitations would be sent out in the New Year.
Any other Business. In an email Barrie Yates had earlier regretted the lack of contact between the Leeds Association of Engineers and the Welding Institute and other kindred associations. Mr. Toulson advised that in the past we had attempted to maintain a relationship with these groups but they had failed to respond to communications we had sent. An example was when we offered a place as our guest at the annual dinner to the president of the Welding Institute. No reply had been forthcoming on a couple of instances and as such we lost touch with them. On another matter Barrie had expressed sadness that we no longer held lecture meetings at the University of Leeds. Mr. Toulson explained that an alternative venue, as we now have, was found due to new demands by the university for high charges required to pay for evening security staff. Council considered at the time that these costs were adverse and not in the long term interests of the association. Barrie regretted that we had since been unable to invite ‘prestigious’ lecturers to give talks, as had occasionally been the case when we met at the university. Mr. Toulson remembered that each session we would have a shared prestige lecture with a kindred association but this arrangement had lapsed.
Having no other business Mr. Aldersley closed the meeting.
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