THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 6.30 pm on Thursday 5th September 2024 at The Manor Golf Club, Drighlington, Leeds.
1. Attendance. J. Aldersley in the chair with R. Town, M. Murray, G. Roper, A. Kibler, I. Scholes, J. Bentley, A. Rogers, B. Yates & G. Toulson.
2. Apologies for absence. I. Blakeley, S. Stacey.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, dated 9th May 2024 were approved & signed.
4. Matters Arising. None.
5. Treasurers Report.
Balance of Accounts was reported but not published here.
Mr Kibler advised that the annual accounts will now run from 1st September until 31st August and they will be checked by his sister as before. He commented on his prepared accounts that the association only received around £20.00 more than the previous financial year, even though the subscriptions had been raised. There had been additional expenditure such as the purchase of a laptop computer to use during lectures. The anniversary dinner had incurred a loss of £591.75 and there had been a number of other minor expenses. The golf tournament is self financing leaving a balance of zero. As a result of quite a few cheques being received as golf remittances, the bank had imposed charges, as the terms for our account offer only 10 transactions per month. Subsequent transactions beyond the 10 allowed, such as cheque deposits, will incur bank charges. Mr. Kibler had discussed this matter with Mr. Stacey who offered in future to request golfers pay him personally, and then he would pay Mr. Kibler the total in order to avoid bank charges in future.
6. Correspondence. Mr. Aldersley had contacted WDS Tooling Components, Britvic Soft Drinks, M.A. Ford and The Leeds Welding Company. All had given positive feedback and were willing to offer a visit. Evening working and special arrangements by the organisations meant that evening visits could be arranged.
7. Membership. Mr. Aldersley advised that WDS Tooling Components had applied for corporate membership of the association. Mr. Toulson proposed the application and Mr. Bentley seconded. Mr. Murray said that as it was currently before the start of the session he had nothing to report at the moment.
8. Current Programme. Mr. Yates had kindly offered to give a talk for the opening event of the 2024-2025 session. The talk will be on the 19th September to accommodate the speaker’s busy schedule. Mr. Yates’ talk will be held at our usual venue in Morley. Mr. Toulson had drafted a calendar of events and read out the plan. Mr. Aldersley, Mr. Kibler and Mr. Toulson jointly allocated events to the dates. The provisional plan is as follows:-
September 19th 2024 Barrie Yates’ Lecture – ‘Engines for Engineers’
October 31st Visit to The Leeds Welding Company
November 28th Visit to Britvic Soft Drinks
January 30th 2025 Visit to M.A. Ford
February 27th Talk by our 3 student members (Cameron, Isaac & Martins)
March 27th Visit to WDS Tooling Components
March 29th 160th Anniversary Dinner at ‘The Manor’ Drighington
April 24th Possible talk to be arranged by Mr. Blakeley
May 11th Sunday Annual Church Service at Leeds Minster (possible lunch)
June 19th Solstice Event (to be arranged closer to the date)
July (early) Annual Golf Tournament (to be arranged in the New Year)
Mr. Yates raised the subject of a joint event with another organisation. The I.Mech.E. was mentioned for a possible connection. Mr. Aldersley mentioned that he had been in touch with the I.Mech.E. but to no avail. Mr. Toulson advised that our close connection in the past had been with the I.E.T. (Institution of Engineering and Technology) and our contact had been Mr. Brian Firth, who had often attended our anniversary dinners. Mr.Toulson offered to try to make contact with the I.E.T.
9. Next Session. Member Neil Cobbold has offered to try to arrange a visit to ‘Caterpillar UK Ltd.’ This could be considered as an additional event to the current programme (perhaps in the summer) but can be kept in reserve for the next session.
10. Website. Mr. Toulson said that he had added Mr. Yates’ lecture to the website and will add other events as soon as they are confirmed. He advised that the Council Meeting Dates page on the website had been updated with the plan for the forthcoming session of meetings. Mr. Stacey had forwarded his report and golf results and this, along with event reports had been uploaded to the website.
11. Golf. In his absence Mr. Stacey had sent his golf report and Mr. Aldersley read this to the council.
12. Annual Dinner. Mr. Kibler advised that he had booked the 160th Anniversary Dinner to be held at ‘The Manor’ Drighlington on Saturday 29th March 2025. He proposed that we could offer a free meal to members as it was a milestone celebration. Mr. Murray said that could ‘open the door’ to members who had not attended before. Mr. Yates suggested that it might be better to consider partially subsidising the dinner tickets for members. Mr. Kibler said he had booked a magician for entertainment. He will be sending out application forms for the dinner in the New Year.
13. Annual Church Service. Mr. Aldersley offered to contact Leeds Minster to see if the proposed date for our church service was acceptable in their calendar.
Any other Business. Mr. Aldersley reported that our student member Cameron had reached the National Finals in a competition using Computer Aided Manufacturing for Milling using CAM software. The subject of student sponsorship was raised and this will be discussed at the next meeting. Mr. Roper raised the subject of the association’s Student Award Scheme. Mr. Aldersley said that council Member Mr. Soutar had talked of involvement in arranging the student award. Mr. Toulson said if the award could be completed before the dinner then a presentation could be made at the event. Mr. Aldersley asked if the council had space for our three student members to join us as he hoped this might keep them in close contact. We had received a copy of the events programme from the Keighley Association of Engineers and Mr. Aldersley said it would be good for some of us to attend their annual dinner on 30th November as they have attended our dinners in the past. There being no other business Mr. Aldersley closed the meeting.
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