THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.30pm on Thursday 4th November 2021 at The Corner House Club, Leeds. LS17 6QE
1. Attendance. R. Town in the chair with A. Kibler, M. Murray, G. Toulson, J. Bentley, G. Roper, I. Scholes and J. Burton.
2. Apologies for absence. S. Stacey, H. Kingswell, A. Rogers, J. Shergill, B. Yates, I. Blakeley and J. Aldersley.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting. Dated 7th October 2021 were approved and signed.
4. Matters Arising. None
5. Treasurers Report. Mr. Kibler reported the following transactions :-
Expenditure
£136.50 Visit to Whistlestop Valley Railway.
£111.82 Big Wet Fish – Website Domain and Hosting Charges.
£120.00 Council Meeting room at The Corner House.
£100.00 Donation to Whistlestop Valley Railway.
Income
£15.00 Subscription from C. Stocks.
£50.00 Collected from Whistlestop Railway visit. Non members.
Mr. Kibler said he had completed the end of year accounts and he will ask Ms. Burton to inspect them prior to next year’s AGM. He had previously learned that the bank proposed charging the association £6.50 per month to operate our current account. Following further investigations he found that this would only be the case with ten or more transactions per month. As we process considerably less there would be no charges incurred and it was decided no action need be taken. Mr. Murray advised that £15.00 had been received on 6th April 2021 with the reference ‘MOB’. Mr. Kibler suggested this was a reference to a mobile banking transaction rather than being related to a membership subscription, and that he will investigate further. Mr. Kibler advised that ‘Whistlestop Valley Railway’ had not yet cashed their cheque but that he had included the item in the year end accounts as it fell in October.
6. Correspondence. None.
7. Membership. Mr. Murray said three new members from Thorite had yet to pay their fees of £20.00 each. Mr. Town offered to remind them to pay. Mr. Murray advised that we have a new member, Neil Cobbold of ‘Whistlestop Valley Railway.’ Mr. Cobbold had been our host at the recent visit to the railway. Mr. Murray requested some journals from Mr. Town in order to send them out to new members. Mr. Town said he only had around four journals available. Mr. Scholes said it should be possible to request additional copies from the printer as the journal had only been published fairly recently. Mr. Murray said he had personally delivered a journal and rule book to Mr. Cobbold and learned from him that he had worked as an engineer for ‘Caterpillar’ and as well as his interest at the railway he was also involved with Sherburn Aero Club. Mr. Kibler commented that Neil was a qualified pilot. Mr. Murray reported that there were a couple of members still in arrears of around three years and that he will write to them to see if they still wish to remain members. Mr. Kibler reminded us that Mr. Aldersley is still pursuing corporate membership for his employer, Leeds City College. Mr. Toulson said he had been in touch with Mr. Aldersley who said his employer had offered the use of facilities at the college for our lectures in lieu of the fee for corporate membership. Mr. Aldersley had said he was still in negotiations with the college staff.
8. Current Programme. Mr. Murray suggested that the association make a donation to ‘Whistlestop Valley Railway’ as the total cost to the association had only been around £80.00 and that we had been offered excellent hospitality during the visit. He proposed a donation of £100.00 and this was approved with a show of hands. Mr. Toulson summarised forthcoming events as follows:- the November lecture by Bruce MacDougall, the January lecture by Barrie Yates. Both these lectures would be in Morley. Mr. Toulson confirmed the dates with Mr. Scholes who said that he had already booked for November but he would book for January also. The steam powered rocket bike event is planned for February by Mr. Town but we still need to confirm a venue. It is hoped that this event will be held at Leeds City College where access and other facilities are suitable for this event. Mr. Toulson confirmed that John Sugden is booked for the March lecture. Mr. Roper had mentioned to Mr. Sugden that we have a venue in Morley and possibly a college venue, and he had offered to provide transport for the speaker if required. Mr. Toulson advised that the website details the solstice event, although we still need to arrange this at a later date. The golf date is also booked and shown on the website. We still have yet to arrange the annual dinner and the church service. Mr. Scholes said he would be in touch with the church to see if the service could be arranged in May. Mr. Murray asked about the AGM and Mr. Toulson said we have still to arrange a date but this meeting is usually in April. Mr. Town was informed that it has been the custom for the outgoing president to give a short talk following the AGM and he said he would give it some consideration. Mr. Scholes commented that he and Mr. Yates had difficulty hearing the speaker at the recent lecture. Mr. Jagger had declined the use of a microphone for his talk. Mr. Scholes said he would have the church hall microphone in place for the next meeting to hopefully solve the problem. Mr. Scholes had been asked by member Michael Bate about the church organ. Mr. Scholes said the interior of the church was worth seeing and that he may be able to arrange a short recital by the church organist if this would be of interest to members, although it might not make up a full event unless there was something else to fill out the evening.
9. Next Session. Mr. Toulson had received a call from Mr. Yates who had mentioned the possibility of another visit to Forgemasters of Sheffield. This, along with the Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire would make for suitable summer visits. He had also mentioned that we should keep in touch with the group at Stanley Ferry for a possible visit or lecture.
10. Website. Following an earlier question by Mr. Murray, Mr. Toulson had looked into the possibility of determining who visits our website. He discovered that although software was available it was not to be trusted. However, ‘Google Analytics’ from a trusted company is available at £7.00 per month but was only payable annually in one sum at £84.00 Mr. Toulson had discovered that personal details of visitors to websites are easily blocked by browsers and firewalls rendering the results quite unreliable. He reminded council that ‘Wordpress’ currently uses a ‘Plug-In’ called Jetpack and the following data was recorded on Tuesday 2nd November:- (1) Number of visits to the website = 2, (2) Best ever number of views per day = 148, (3) All time views to our website since 2012 = 51,996.
11. Annual Golf Tournament. Nothing to report.
12. Annual Dinner. Mr. Kibler said he will be planning the dinner in January 2022 with a view to holding the dinner on Saturday 9th April. Mr. Bentley asked if previous speakers will be invited to the dinner and Mr. Kibler confirmed this.
13. Church Service. Mr. Scholes said he would contact the church to see if they will confirm the customary service for the first week in May.
14. YouTube Videos. Mr. Kibler told us of a friend in America who has a milling machine and a lathe and intends to produce instructive videos for YouTube. Ms. Burton suggested we could add links to these videos on our website to raise interest. Mr. Kibler said he would investigate further.
15. Any other Business. Having no other business Mr. Town closed the meeting after thanking those who attended.
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