THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.00 pm on Thursday 7th September 2023 at the Headingley Golf Club Leeds LS16 8DW
1. Attendance. R. Town in the chair with, I. Scholes, G. Roper, J. Aldersley, J. Bentley, M. Murray, A. Kibler, A. Rogers, S. Stacey, G. Toulson and I. Blakeley.
2. Apologies for absence. J. Burton, H. Soutar and B. Yates.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting. Dated 11th May 2023 were approved and signed.
4. Matters Arising. None.
5. Treasurers Report. Mr. Kibler read out his report which covers all financial transactions since our last council meeting and includes the balances in each bank account. The bank balances were reported but are not recorded in the minutes.
The following transactions were reported:-
| Date | Details Of Transaction | Debit | Credit | |
| 15/May/23 | Golf – John Miller | 00.00 | 56.00 | |
| 14/May/23 | Meals – Annual Church Service | 49.40 | 00.00 | |
| 12/Jun/23 | Golf – D Newman | 00.00 | 56.00 | |
| 14/Jun/23 | Golf – G. D. Bond | 00.00 | 68.00 | |
| 21/Jun//23 | Golf – M. A. Ford | 00.00 | 1492.00 | |
| 21/Jun/23 | Golf – J. Shergill | 00.00 | 314.00 | |
| 22/Jun/23 | Golf – Braime + Subs Alan Braime | 0.00 | 333.00 | |
| 23/Jun/23 | Solstice Supper | 255.00 | 00.00 | |
| 26/Jun/23 | Golf – Tom Callaghan | 00.00 | 56.00 | |
| 26/Jun/23 | Solstice Supper Donations – A. Kibler | 00.00 | 65.00 | |
| 30/Jun/23 | Golf – Dave Booth | 00.00 | 50.00 | |
| 4/Jul//23 | Garforth Golf Club | 2301.00 | 0.00 | |
| Golf – Excess to Steve Stacey | 442.00 | 000 |
6. Correspondence. Mr Murray has received a message from Joyce (Ken Norris’s wife) thanking Leeds Association for the flowers that Mr. Roper had taken to her house along with our condolences for the loss of Ken, a long-time member of the Leeds Association of Engineers. Mr. Roper will assist Joyce in finding buyers for Ken’s model engineering equipment including machine tools and models. Mr Aldersley said Jen Burton (council member) has been in touch saying she hopes to return to council duties shortly. Mr. Toulson has been contacted through the website by someone who is in the process of restoring a Greens Lawnmower, he is looking for any information we can supply. He has forwarded him details of John Pease who wrote a book on the subject
7. Membership. We have no new members since the last council meeting.
8. Current Programme. We have only one confirmed date for the current session with a number of possibles that need urgently consolidating so that we can publish an events program that at least takes us into the New Year. We discussed all the possible events and the dates we would prefer which I have listed below in the table.
| Proposed Date | Details | Venue | proposed or confirmed | Contacted by |
| 28th September | Thunderbolt Model Steam locomotive | Morley | confirmed | G. Toulson |
| 26Th October | Drakes Textiles | proposed | M. Murray | |
| 30th November | Lecture by Neil Cobbold (subject ?) | Morley | proposed | A. Kibler |
| 21st December | ? | ? | ||
| 25th Jan 2024 | Walker Moreflex turbine blades | proposed | J. Aldersley | |
| 29th Feb 2024 | Corrugated Fencing – Elland | proposed | M. Murray | |
| 28th March 2024 | Carnaud Metal Box – Wortley | visit | proposed | R. Town |
| 6th April 2024 | Annual Dinner | ? | Proposed | A. Kibler |
| 25th April 2024 | AGM & Lecture Diaphragm Pumps | Morley | Confirmed | R. Town |
| 12th May 2024 | Annual Church Service | Leeds | proposed | I. Scholes |
| 30th May 2024 | Lecture ? | |||
| 20th June 2024 | Solstice Walk & Meal | proposed | M. Murray | |
| 4th July 2024 | Golf Tournament @ Cobble Hall | Leeds | proposed | S. Stacey |
9. Next Session. Nothing to report.
10. Website. Mr. Toulson said the website is up to date but we urgently need to confirm and publish the next events in our programme.
11. Annual Golf Tournament. Mr Stacey has written a detailed report on this year’s golf day which I have included as appendix A of these minutes. Mr. Murray raised the question whether a player in the golf tournament who works for a corporate member of Leeds Association of Engineers should be eligible to win the Rose Bowl Trophy. This has been reserved in the past for members of the association. We decided that this matter should be discussed at the next full council meeting.
12. Church Service. Mr Kibler said only 5 people attended the church service and questioned whether we should continue our relationship with the church if we cannot muster better attendance. We now have to remind the church of the event when they always contacted us in the past. However, this could be due to the turnover of ministers they have experienced in the last few years. We decided that we should continue our relationship for the present time.
13. Meetings at Morley. Mr. Scholes reported that the Weight Watchers group are now using Morley Church Hall on Thursday evenings so we need to re-arrange our time so that our membership arrives at 7.30pm for a 7.45pm start, moving our start time back by 15 minutes.
14. Annual Dinner. Not discussed.
Any other Business. Mr Roper said the Steam Bike has got to around 180mph so is closing in on the world record, but to progress any further a bigger steam boiler is required. He will keep us informed of progress and will let Mr. Toulson know when any further attempt at the world record is to be made so that he can inform our membership through the website. Having no other business Mr. Town closed the meeting after thanking those who attended.
……………………………………………President. ……………….. Date
Appendix A
Golf Report 2023
The annual Association Golf Day was held at Garforth GC on Tuesday 4th July. This was the venue where the original event was played in 1936, and this was the 83rd time it has been played. The weather was dry but fairly cool with blustery wind, which made the golf quite difficult. However the winner of the Braime Trophy was Dan Brown (an employee of M A Ford, who are corporate members) playing with a handicap of 3, and he played the round 2 under gross! M A Ford supplied 18 players for the event. Due to generous sponsorship I managed to supply a prize for everybody, even a bottle of wine or 3 golf balls for the worst scores. With the help of the golf club, who supplied a free round for 4 players, there were prizes for “nearest the pin” on all 4 of the par 3s. The full report of the results, together with pictures is now available on the Association website. The course was in very good condition and hospitality from the club was excellent, including half a roast chicken for the main course!
I managed to run the day on budget and retain a reasonable sum of money to carry over to the event next year. I’ve already booked Leeds (Cobble Hall) GC for next year, and it will be played on Thursday 4th July. It is getting more difficult every year to get a good deal for the event, with high inflation the visitor fees at all clubs is rising, for example Moortown is now £120 per player and Headingley is £90. However I’ve managed to get a good deal at Leeds GC, so the price for the full day of catering and golf, will hopefully be the same as this year (£68), or possibly slightly cheaper for those playing from lunch onwards (£56).
We are fortunate to still have some good sponsors, but people who have given money for many years are getting older and retiring! So, if anybody has any ideas for new sponsors (Thorite?), please let me know. I do not want to have any more than 39 players for the afternoon individual event, playing in 3s, as it causes delay in starting the evening meal and presentation. (39 players needs 13 tee-times, with 7 minutes gap, so 84 minutes in total).
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