Council Meeting Minutes – October 2015

THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.15pm on Thursday 1st October 2015 at the Cornerhouse Club Leeds.

1. Attendance. B. Yates, President in the chair with, J. Shergill J. Aldersley, I. Scholes, M. Murray, K. Hegarty, A. Kibler, H. Kingswell, and I. Blakeley.

2. Apologies for absence. G. Toulson, A. Rogers and J. Bentley.

3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, dated 3rd September were approved & signed.

4. Matters Arising. None.

5. Treasurers Report. In Mr. Bentley’s absence we did not have a Treasurer’s report.

6. Church Commemorative Plaque. On the 5th September the plaque was officially unveiled at Leeds Minster. The unveiling was attended by 20 people including partners and was followed by a meal at Bibis restaurant.

7. Correspondence. Mr. Yates said he has written to all the companies we are to visit this year to confirm details. He said that he had finally got a response from the lady Chief Engineer at Fox’s biscuits saying they are unable to accommodate us at this time.
8. Membership. Mr. Murray advised us that he had two applications for membership this month. We have an application from Martin Pollard, a production manager at Meltog, who has expressed interest in life membership. We discussed this at some length because we have not had anybody purchase life membership before. We decided that the price should be £150. Mr. Murray will make the offer and see what response he gets. We had a second application from Neil Burchill who works at Ardeth Engineering. He was proposed by Alan Harris & seconded by Andrew Harris. We accepted both applications with a vote of council members. These applications need ratifying at the next open meeting. Mr. Kibler said we should look at the possibility of our members being able to pay their membership fees by direct bank transfer. This is something we need to discuss with Mr. Bentley at our next council meeting. Mr. Murray said he needs a significant number of stamps to post out membership renewal forms, Mr. Bentley has the stock but is currently on holiday. Mr. Kibler proposed that Mr. Murray should take his wife Lynn out for dinner paid for by Leeds Association of Engineers as a thank-you for all the work she does assisting Malcolm in preparing circulars, addressing and posting letters etc. Mr. Kibler’s proposal was seconded by Mr. Yates and approved by a show of hands of council members.

9. Current Programme. The programme for this session is complete with exception of the ladies evening which we discussed at some length. It was suggested that we might visit the Imax Cinema or alternatively we might try arrange a visit to Pet Craft factory at Birstall (Mars) on 31st March 2016. Marton Mills is the next item on the programme, numbers are limited to 30 people. We know a number of member’s partners have expressed an interest in attending but of course members will have first priority. We discussed the Solstice walk and Mr. Scholes will investigate a walk he has heard about.

10. Next Session. Mr Scholes told us of some research about a munitions explosion that happened at Low Moor (Bradford) that’s being done by his local historical society. He suggested that it might be something we could have a lecture on.

11. Website. Everything is working well, Mr. Scholes commented that the quality of information on the forthcoming events is excellent. The only other comment about the website was that the President of our associations name is not included.

12. Journal. Mr. Murray asked Mr. Scholes to print a further ten copies of the journal to post out to new members as part of the membership pack. It was pointed out that the data within the journal is 6 years old.

13. Golf. Nothing to report.

14. Annual Dinner. It is too early to do any of the detailed work and currently Mr. Rogers is on holiday. However Mr. Yates said we might consider getting a jazz band to play in the interval as this is our 150th Anniversary Dinner. The cost will be around £250. It was suggested that we should consider getting a more humorous speaker or even a comedian or a magician to entertain us.
Any other Business. Having no other business Mr. Yates closed the meeting.

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