THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.15pm on Thursday 3rd October 2024 at The Corner House Club Leeds.
1. Attendance. J. Aldersley in the chair with M. Murray, A. Kibler, I. Scholes, G. Toulson, I. Auty, H. Soutar and I. Blakeley.
2. Apologies for absence. S. Stacey, B. Yates, G. Roper, J. Burton, R. Town, J. Bentley, A. Rogers, M. Golubevs and C. Pinder.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, dated 5th September 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 |
| 05/Sep/24 | Council Meeting Dinner | 221.90 | – |
| 17/Sep/24 | Corporate Subs WDS Components | – | 100.00 |
| 26/Sep/24 | Morley Church Hall – September talk | 50.00 | – |
| 02/Oct/24 | Subs – M. Murray | – | 20.00 |
| 03/Oct/24 | Council Meeting Dinner- (collected) | – | 100.00 |
Balance of Accounts was reported but not published here.
Mr. Kibler said that he intends reporting the financial accounts from September through to August which will bring them into line with how the events calendar is run. His sister has kindly agreed to verify the accounts again. He intends offering her a free place at the Annual Dinner as a small reward for her efforts. He said that he expects the association to have lost around £800 after subsidies and the supply of complimentary drinks and entertainment at the Annual Dinner.
6. Correspondence. Mr. Aldersley has tried contacting Guy Martin (Former Professional Motor Cyclist & television celebrity) but has not received a response. Mr. Toulson has been trying to confirm our room hire for the council meetings at The Corner House Club but has been unable to speak to anyone. The only other correspondence is literature from The Print Works Leeds (Leeds City College Catering) advertising their functions and menus over the Christmas period.
7. Membership. Mr. Murray said little has changed in terms of individual membership but the good news is that WDS Components have signed up as a corporate member.
8. Student of the Year Award. The student award will go to Cameron Pinder who is currently attending Leeds City College and works as an apprentice at Kirkstall Precision. He has recently become a council member. It is fantastic to see his and his fellow students’ enthusiasm for engineering. We are sure he is destined to have a fulfilling career ahead of him. The award will be made at the 160th Anniversary Dinner in 2025. Mr. Soutar, the previous winner of the student award, suggested that in the future it might be possible to run a design based competition as a way of selecting a recipient for the award. The competition would be based around solving a broadly defined design problem. The entrants would produce a design solution, including supporting calculations. The competition could be offered to a number of colleges and we could have a judging panel from our membership. Of course, the prize would have to be something worthwhile, This would accompany the shield that is kept by the winner for one year and a certificate should be awarded that can feature in the recipient’s C.V. He also suggested that we should try get lectures on more technical subjects in order to attract more young engineers and perhaps we might try re-establish links with Leeds University. This would make it easier to attract more prestigious lectures and would have the benefit of making access to students easier.
9. Current Programme. Our next event is the visit to The Leeds Welding Company which we hope will interest many of our members. The following month on the 24th November we are due to attend Britvic Soft Drinks. This visit is restricted to a maximum of 14 people, one of which will be our president. Applicants are to send notice of interest to our membership secretary Mr. Murray. If the visit is oversubscribed names will be drawn from a hat at the next council meeting. It might be possible to get a second visit to Britvic if numbers justify it. The visit to WDS Components in March has been confirmed but they would like to know where each visiting applicant works. Mr. Blakeley said he has spoken to Andrew Ross of Hunslet Engine Company and Andrew has agreed to give us a talk with powerpoint presentation on the 7mm to the foot model he is making of the Hunslet Jack Lane factory. This model has been 12 years in design and manufacture and is an accurate reflection of the building and its contents including locomotives in production. The factory model includes working cranes doing tandem lifts of the locomotives. This is certainly something our members should not miss, scheduled for the 25th April 2025.
10. Next Session. Mr. Aldersley is planning to approach Metalbox in Leeds with a view to getting a factory visit. Our immediate past president Mr. Town is one of the company’s suppliers so may be able to suggest an appropriate person to contact. We discussed how we used to have joint lectures and visits with the IET and the IMECHE. Many of these lectures were on the more technical subjects. It would be nice to re-establish those links but this is proving difficult. Mr. Toulson has emailed both but got no response. Mr Aldersley said that Vas, our Leeds Association member who works in Australia, is a member of the IMECHE and perhaps he might be able to supply a name to contact.
11. Website. Mr. Toulson confirmed everything is going well we just need a little more content including details of events.
12. Golf. Mr. Stacey sent his report by email, being unable to attend the meeting. He said that he was hoping to book the Garforth Golf Club for the 2025 tournament but on enquiring he was told that a full day’s golf with catering would be £75 per head if he booked now and this is not negotiable. However, if he delayed the booking until January 2025 the price is likely to increase to £85. He enquired with other golf clubs including Horsforth and found they all wanted £75 for the day’s golf. He sent an email to Leeds Golf Club requesting a repeat of the 2024 golf day at the same price and was told that the price would have to increase by £3 for the full day and by £2 for anyone attending the afternoon session which he thought was very reasonable so has placed a £100 deposit to secure a booking on Tuesday 1st July 2025. Due to golf club prices rising rapidly he feels that Leeds Golf Club may become the regular venue for our event. He commented that it’s a good venue for playing golf and the catering and facilities are good. He will issue a golf notice early next year. He is hoping that main sponsors Alan Braime and M A Ford will continue with their generous sponsorship so that the event can continue in its current form. It was suggested, because places in the golf tournament are restricted to 39, that members of Leeds Association of Engineers should be offered a place one week before general release. This might cause issues with the number of places required by sponsors but this subject needs further discussion.
13. Annual Dinner. Mr. Kibler told us that the 160th Annual Dinner is booked and we have booked a magician to circulate the tables doing close quarter magic. The cost of the magician is £250 but this cost will be absorbed by the association. We discussed briefly with it being the 160th anniversary dinner whether it should be free for members of the association but some of us thought that this might be too big a burden on our dwindling funds and should be discussed later at a council meeting with higher attendance. It was suggested that we might have some sort of banner made for the 160th anniversary celebration but this needs further discussion. It was agreed that we will continue to have a concessionary price for student members of the association.
14. Annual Church Service. Mr. Aldersley will contact the vicar and invite him to our 160th Anniversary Dinner and discuss the annual church service. We agreed that members who attend the church service and the summer solstice event will get a £5 subsidy towards the meal at each event.
Any other Business. We were told Martins Golubevs one of our student members has reached the finals in the Milling category at the World Skills finals, quite an achievement. Having no other business Mr. Aldersley closed the meeting.
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