THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.30pm on Thursday 4th February 2021 online.
The meeting was hosted by Mr. Kibler using the “Zoom” video conferencing application. This was necessary due to the national Covid – 19 requirements for social distancing.
1. Attendance. J. Aldersley in the chair with, I. Scholes, A. Kibler, J. Bentley, M. Murray, G. Toulson, J. Burton, H. Kingswell, G. Roper & J. Shergill.
2. Apologies for absence. R. Town, I. Blakeley, S. Stacey, A. Rogers & K. Hegarty.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting. Dated 7th January 2021 were approved.
4. Matters Arising. Mr. Murray noted that two names of organisations that he mentioned at the last meeting for possible events were not in the January minutes. He will search for the names in his email records for the next meeting for further discussion. Mr. Kingswell suggested that one of the names could have been ‘Wesco’. Mr. Murray said the two names he had in mind earlier were in addition to ‘Wesco’.
5. Treasurers Report. Mr. Kibler said there had been no financial transactions this month apart from arranging the refund of subscriptions to members Messrs. Mathers and Garland as mentioned in the January minutes.
6. Correspondence. Council members had received an email circular from Barrie Yates and this will be discussed later in the agenda. Mr. Aldersley had been involved in two online meetings at his college with Balfour Beatty plc. and Leeds Welding Co. Ltd. He thought that there may be the possibility of some involvement with both organisations and he will pursue them in the near future. Mr. Aldersley had also been in touch with a surgery theatre lighting company and this contact may be useful to us when we are again able to arrange events.
7. Membership. Mr. Murray advised that there was nothing to report, mainly due to the current situation, whereby there is little chance of contact with potential members.
8. Current Programme. Mr. Murray had been made aware of a recent machinery investment by Siddall & Hilton Products Ltd. of Brighouse. The company manufactures wire fencing and this organisation might possibly be suitable for a visit when the situation eases. Mr. Murray also mentioned Airedale International Air Conditioning Ltd. as a possible visit but the company had advised that they were not currently accepting visitors. Mr. Yates had previously circulated an email to council members proposing the possibility of a Zoom lecture. Prior to the council meeting he had telephoned Mr. Toulson to tell him that he had been in touch with association friend Frank Smith, who had lectured to us previously. Mr. Smith had expressed an interest in giving an online talk for our members. Mr. Toulson contacted Mr. Smith who advised that he was fairly well versed in online talks and had his own Zoom account which facilitated extended online sessions. Mr. Aldersley suggested we consider our own Zoom account. Mr. Kibler thought the cost was around £13 per month. Mr. Kibler offered to host the online lecture, as he does for the council meetings. Council supported this idea and Mr. Toulson agreed to contact Mr. Smith further in order to arrange a suitable date. He suggested the last Thursday of the month, as has been the custom, which will be the 25th February. Mr. Toulson advised that the event could be publicised on the website and may possibly attract a similar or maybe larger interest than the usual lecture meetings.
9. Next Session. Nothing to report.
10. Website. Mr. Toulson had received some recollections of his working life from Mr. Kibler and had recently uploaded these to the website with a request for further contributions from members. Currently there are four stories uploaded. Three are from council members and one from an association member. Mr. Murray had previously asked if we had any statistics regarding visits to the website. Mr. Toulson had used WordPress statistics using Jetpack software and had collected some figures and these are as follows:-
Website Referrals:-
2 Referrals today from a Search Engine:- 1 from Google & 1 from DuckDuckGo.
In the last 7 days there were 25 referrals:- 17 Google : 3 DuckDuckGo : 3 Bing : 2 Yahoo.
In the last Year there were 1,142 referrals:- 1,019 Google : 77 Bing : 21 Yahoo : 20 from DuckDuckGo : 5 Other.
Website Page Visitors Snapshot:-
Yesterday, 3rd February 2021 there were 18 visitors, detailed as follows:-
10 views of the Council Meeting Minutes Page.
6 Home Page/Archived Articles.
1 The Great Gathering (Locomotives)
1 YouTube Page (Offering a link to the video)
Website Superlatives:-
Best Ever Day = 148 visitors.
All Time Number = 47,934 visitors since setting up the WordPress system in 2012.
YouTube Video:-
Since 13th May 2019 we have had 57 views of the YouTube video with 2 ‘Likes’.
11. Journal. Mr Bentley asked if council would like the website reminiscences to be included in the journal. This was generally agreed. He asked if Mr. Toulson could email the articles to him for editing due to difficulties in taking them from the website. Mr. Toulson agreed to forward the articles. Ms. Burton asked Mr. Murray if he could confirm her date of joining the council in order to complete her article for the journal. Mr. Murray said he would consult his records. Mr. Bentley said he would check in his journal members list for the correct date and would incorporate it in the article.
12. Annual Golf Tournament. Nothing to report.
13. Annual Dinner. Mr. Kibler said nothing can be done for the moment apart from that he would contact the Golf Club in order to keep in touch, pending a booking in the future.
14. Church Service. No arrangements can be made at the moment. Mr. Aldersley asked Mr. Scholes if he would continue to maintain contact with Reverend Sam. Mr. Scholes agreed.
15. Meeting Rooms. Nothing can be done at the moment until we are able to propose meeting dates with either the Cornerhouse Club or the Cleckheaton Meeting Venue.
Any other Business. Mr. Murray said that we should start to consider elections for the next session. Mr. Aldersley proposed we should perhaps ask Mr. Town if he would be willing to serve another year as president, considering that the last twelve months have been fairly dormant. Mr. Murray pointed out that we still have no vice-president in the post. Mr. Roper was asked if he might consider the post but was non committal at the moment. Mr. Aldersley reported that he had been made aware of a ‘Confederation of Engineers’ in Leeds and this would be investigated further. He also commented that Barrie Yates who had previously been a member of council had expressed an interest in rejoining. Mr. Toulson offered to contact Mr. Yates to see if this was still the case and if so invite him to join us for the next virtual council meeting. The next meeting will be on Thursday 4th March 2021. There being no further business Mr. Aldersley thanked the members for their attendance and Mr. Kibler for acting as host and closed the meeting.
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