THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.15pm on Thursday 7th January 2016 at the Cornerhouse Club Leeds.
1. Attendance. B. Yates President in the chair with, J. Shergill J. Aldersley, I. Scholes, M. Murray, J. Bentley, A. Rogers and I. Blakeley.
2. Apologies for absence. H. Kingswell, G. Toulson, K. Hegarty and A. Kibler.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, dated 2nd December 2015 were approved & signed.
4. Matters Arising. Mr. Yates told us he had written to Mr. Butler, a retiring member thanking him for the support he gave us over many years. He also reported contacting the Marks and Spencer archivist who advised him that they do not have evening or weekend visits (Ladies Evening) so we decided to look for an alternative event.
5. Treasurers Report. Mr. Bentley reported the following financial transactions.
Accounts for December 2015 to January 2016.
Credits
Barrie Yates (relating to visit to Ossett Brewery) £100.00
Subscriptions £95.00
Balance not published but reported at meeting.
Mr. Bentley discussed in some depth the balance sheet he has prepared for auditing and presentation at the next AGM. The balance sheet had also been circulated to council by email prior to the meeting. He said that we are showing a trading loss last year of £1600 but the year had been exceptional. We had made a charitable donation to Quicksilver (water-speed record boat) and also the Dinner for the retirement of the vicar of Leeds (Graham Bundock) and presentation of the 150 year commemorative plaque had been a significant expense. However these were all one off expenses and we have sufficient funds to maintain subscriptions at the current level for the coming year. Mr. Bentley said he did need to revise the balance sheet to include the value of our stock of postage stamps we bought prior to the price increase.
6. Correspondence. Mr. Yates said he had found some information on an Australian competitor looking to beat Nigel McKnight and Quicksilver to the water speed world record. Mr Yates sent this information to Nigel for his information. Mr. Scholes said he received a curious email that on the surface looked to be from Mr. Murray but when he spoke to Mr. Murray it appeared that someone might have hacked into his address book so fellow council members be wary.
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7. Membership. Mr. Murray advised us that we have received an application for membership from a Mr. John Clifford Bennet a retired company director he is proposed by Steve Stacey and seconded by Mr. Hegarty we accepted his application by a show of hands subject to ratification by the membership at our next open meeting. It was agreed that we should invite Mr. Stacey to join council, Mr. Yates will make the approach by email.
8. Current Programme. Mr. Murray suggested a visit to a photography exhibition at Manningham Park might make a good ladies evening, the subject of the exhibition is 100 most famous ladies. He also suggested a walk in the vicinity of Saint Aidans at Kippax for the Mid- Summer walk.
9. Next Session. Mr Shergill suggested a company based in Bradford called Biomedic (company makes hospital beds) might be worth a visit, Mr. Yates suggested a company called Siddals who are based in Halifax might be an option.
10. Website. Nothing to report.
11. Journal. Mr. Bentley has made significant progress and Mr. Yates is working on the introduction.
12. Golf. Date for the next tournament is on the website.
13. Annual Dinner. Mr. Rogers has written to the civic hall and invited the Lady Lord Mayor along with her escort. We decided to invite the temporary vicar of Leeds Mr. Dobbins. It was decided not to ask a representative from York to our annual dinner because our last two invitations have not been dignified with a response. Mr. Shergill suggested we invite the nephew of Bill Shelton (deceased President and long-time secretary of our association) he is an official of Teeside Association of Engineers who are also celebrating their 150th anniversary this year. We agreed to invite Graham Brown of Leeds University (showed us Robotics laboratory) and Bill Jagger who is doing the lecture on Tayside Bridge. We need to invite representatives of Optare and Sinclair who we are due to visit this session. A decision was made not to print tickets as we list all people who are due to attend. We will supply a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine for each table along with a shared plate of cheese and biscuits. Any member who purchased a ticket at last year’s annual dinner will be offered a free place this year.
Any other Business. Mr. Aldersley offered to become Vice President of the Association, council voted to accept the offer. This fills the role that has been vacant since our last A.G.M. Having no other business Mr. Yates closed the meeting.
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