THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.15pm on Thursday 5th December 2024 at the Corner House Club Leeds.
1. Attendance. J. Aldersley in the chair with M. Murray, A. Kibler, I. Scholes, G. Toulson, J. Bentley, A. Rogers, I. Auty, M. Golubevs, C. Pinder and I. Blakeley.
2. Apologies for absence. S. Stacey, B. Yates, K. Burton, R. Town and G. Roper.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, dated 7th November 2024 were approved & signed.
4. Matters Arising. None.
5. Treasurers Report. Mr. Kibler briefly summarised his financial report that had been sent prior to the meeting by email. The full list of transactions is listed below.
| Date | Transaction | Debit | Credit |
| 12/Nov/24 | Subs – J. Kelsall | – | 15.00 |
| 15/Nov/24 | Subs – P. Garland | – | 15.00 |
| 26/Nov/24 | Subs – J. Aldersley + Vas D. | – | 40.00 |
| 28/Nov/24 | Subs – M. Bate | – | 20.00 |
| 28/Nov/24 | Subs – J. Shergill | – | 20.00 |
| 29/Nov/24 | Subs – G. Bond | – | 20.00 |
| 02/Dec/24 | Subs – P. Garland | – | 10.00 |
| 02/Dec/24 | Subs – C. Whiteley | – | 20.00 |
| 02/Dec/24 | Subs – M. Pollard | – | 20.00 |
| 02/Dec/24 | Subs – J. Pease | – | 20.00 |
| 02/Dec/24 | Subs – C. Harding | – | 20.00 |
| 03/Dec/24 | Subs – J. Scullion paid by S. Stacey | – | 20.00 |
| 03/Dec/24 | Subs – G. Roper | – | 20.00 |
Balance of Accounts was reported but not published here.
He said that everything so far this month has been subscriptions. He commented that we need to keep a tight control on our spending as we have been losing £700 – £800 per year over the last few years.
6. Correspondence. Mr. Scholes said he had an email from the Canon/Vicar at Leeds Minster offering us access to their Carol Concert. He also confirmed that he will be attending our annual dinner.
7. Membership. Mr. Murray said since sending out the subscription notice we have had three resignations, these were Tony Mathers, Robert Johnson (formerly of Craftsman Tools) and Mark Batchelor. Mark was in arrears to the tune of £45 which he has offered to pay but we will let him know that will not be necessary.
8. Student of the Year Award. As mentioned in our previous minutes Cameron Pinder will be the recipient of the student of the year awards at the 2025 Leeds Association Annual Dinner. Cameron has recently participated in the British Final of the World Skills Award for CNC milling and came away to his surprise with the gold medal. Cameron told us of the obstacles he had to overcome just to manufacture a qualifying piece that had to be sent away for assessment prior to being offered a place in the British final. Let’s just say it was all very last minute. He had to programme and manufacture a complex machined component in the final and about an hour in to the programming had to start again when his programme crashed, this was all done on machinery and software that he has had very limited experience with. If you were not at the council meeting ask Cameron to tell you all about it. It is a very interesting story. He now qualifies for the European round of the World Skills event which will be in 2025, Mr. Scholes said he understood that Cameron had to purchase his own tooling and materials in order to take part in the event and suggested that Leeds Association of Engineers could help with this cost.
9. Current Programme. Our next event is the visit to M. A. Ford in Leeds, this visit will be at the end of January 2025, Mr. Aldersley needs to finalise the details. In February we will have a talk presented by our three new student/council members. In March 2025 we are due to visit WDS Components Ltd. in Pudsey. April will be our AGM followed by a talk/Powerpoint presentation by Andrew Ross of Hunslet Engine Company on the 7mm to the foot model he is making of the Hunslet Jack Lane factory.
10. Next Session. Mr. Aldersley said he has a visit to CPL Precision Engineering Ltd. agreed with Chris Edmondson one of the companies two directors. He just needs to confirm a date. He intends speaking to John Pankhurst of Keighley Association of Engineers to see if he can help secure us a visit to Carnaud Metal Box (CMB) and thinks Mr. Stacey our golf secretary might be able to get us a visit to Braime Pressings Ltd. Braimes have been a very generous sponsor of our golf day for many years. Mr. Pinder (Cameron) says Reliance Precision at Huddersfield is a good prospect for allowing us a visit.
11. Website. Mr. Toulson confirmed everything is going well, however, we are expecting bills next year which we have not had for a while we paid for two years last time. He said on checking the statistics views are up by 12%. We had 112 views in the last 7 days.
12. Golf. Mr. Stacey’s golf report was read out by Mr. Aldersley, Mr. Stacey was unable to attend the meeting due to a prior engagement. He said that not much is happening so far in advance of the golf day and that the question that arose at the last meeting regarding accommodating LAE members who wish to play in the tournament has not been an issue in recent years. He has always managed to find a place for them.
13. Annual Dinner. Mr. Kibler told us that the cost of the 160th Annual Dinner to the association will be £32 per person. In the past we have subsidised the dinner to some extent and also provided a complimentary drink to those attending. We have booked a magician to circulate the tables this year doing close quarter magic. The cost of the magician is £250 and this cost will be absorbed by the association, plus the cost of supplying any free dinners for corporate tables and the Canon of Leeds Minster. We agreed that the only other subsidy will be a reduction in price for our student members. Everyone else will pay the £32 cost price and this will reduce our overall loss on the dinner. We decided that in future council members will pay for their own meals at the first meeting of the new season. Mr. Scholes proposed that at this year’s annual dinner the proceeds from the raffle be donated to Cameron Pinder (student award winner) to help with his expenses in competing in the European round of the World Skills finals.
14. Annual Church Service. We decided not to supply free meals or drinks to those attending the church service and see how this impacts attendance. As a general policy we have agreed to cut out the freebies in all areas. Now we have young new members we feel that it is important that they have the funds to keep the Leeds Association of Engineers going forward into the future.
15. Journal. Mr Bentley said the new journal will be significantly smaller than the last one because it is a much shorter period than between previous versions. Also due to Covid-19 in 2020 the number of events have been fewer. We have had an agreement from the person who printed the last journal to also print this one.
Any other Business. Having no other business Mr. Aldersley closed the meeting.
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