THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.15pm on Thursday 3rd September 2026 at The Corner House Club Leeds.
1. Attendance. G. Roper in the chair with J. Aldersley, M. Murray, B. King, H.Court, S. Wilkinson, A. Kibler, N. Burchall, G. Toulson and I. Blakeley.
2. Apologies for absence. I. Auty, A. Rogers, J. Bentley, S. Stacey and R. Town.
3. Minutes of the Previous meeting dated 14th May 2026 were approved & signed.
4. Matters Arising. Mr. Murray questioned whether Mr. Town (past president) remains a member of council. He appears in apologies on the last council minutes, but has not attended council for quite a while. Mr. Aldersley will check with Mr. Town to see whether he wants to remain on council. Mr. Aldersley introduced Harvey Court to the council who he is hoping will take over where Cameron Pinder left off. Cameron is unable to attend council meetings now due to his new job taking him away from Leeds. However, Cameron very much wants to maintain his ties with Leeds Association of Engineers.
5. Treasurers Report. Mr. Kibler produced the audited accounts that he has put together for the AGM, which is to take place at the end of September. There are no monthly accounts forming part of these minutes but the overall financial status of the Leeds Association of Engineers will be presented at the AGM. Mr. Kibler said the audited accounts have been verified by Angela Briggs a family member and our finances have improved since we increased the membership subscription charge and this has allowed him to transfer £500 from the current account to the savings account. He is giving notice that this will be his final year as treasurer having been in this role for the last seven years. We therefore need to find a new treasurer which will also involve being verified at the bank. Mr. Toulson said we need to get copies of the accounts and minutes for several years into the archive at Leeds University Library.
6. Correspondence. Mr. Aldersley has attempted to contact several companies trying to secure visits. These include North Defence (manufacturer of special purpose vehicles) Spooners (manufacturer of baking ovens). Neither of them responded to his emails. Sulzer Pumps who last year agreed to give us a factory visit, but delayed due to building work at their premises, are also not returning calls or answering emails. Further requests for visits have been made to Produmax and Northern Rail. On a more positive note, Greyhound Box have agreed to show us their facility and this is likely to be in January 2027. Chris Wakefield of Arla Foods seems likely to allow us a factory visit. Mr Roper and Mr. Aldersley will visit Bradford College to try arrange a tour of their new engineering department and to discuss how we as an engineering association might be able to engage and mentor their students. Mr. Roper will speak to John Sugden to see if he has another lecture that he is able to present to us.
7. Membership. We have no new applications for membership this month but Mr. Pinder has informed us that he is working on two of his new colleagues who seem quite interested in joining the association. Mr. Murray has been approached by one of our members who enquired about life membership, this member questioned whether we are able to offer any discount on life membership for members who are retired from work. We discussed this at some length, it was suggested that we might consider having a reduced price of £100 for life membership for retired members who have paid 10 years of subscriptions prior to application for this offer. However, due to the number of retired members that we have, we need to look at the financial implications for the association before making any changes. Mr. Kibler proposed that we increase the annual cost of corporate membership from £100 to £150. This was seconded by Mr. Toulson and will now be proposed and voted on at the A.G.M.
8. Orion Project “The Mars Rover”. Nothing to report.
9. Current Programme. The opening event of this session will be a talk by Barrie Yates entitled “If you want to succeed become a Generalist”. This talk will take place after the AGM which we are hoping to arrange for the 24th September at the meeting room of WDS Components. However, Mr. Wilkinson, our man at WDS, is on holiday that day so he will have to speak to his Managing Director to see if they will allow us to visit in his absence and arrange for someone to sign us in and out of the premises. In October our president Mr. Roper will give us a talk on the Ornamental Lathe which he purchased and restored. We have no other firm events booked at this time but could potentially have a talk by our new member Tom Irish who is also a member of the Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (IMBE). We also have the offer of a talk by Mr. Soutar. Mr. Wilkinson will speak to one of his business contacts regarding a factory visit and Mr. Toulson will speak to Michael Fitzpatrick to see if there is any possibility of us visiting Spooner’s factory. Mr. King (student member) said Kirkstall Engineering, his employer are soon to open a new factory in Castleford and a visit there might be possible. Mr. Toulson will speak to John Pankhurst of Keighley Association of Engineers to see if they have any possible leads.
10. Next Session. Nothing to report.
11. Website. Mr. Toulson has updated the website and added a petition relating to the continuation of funding for the Jodrell Bank Telescope. He has added an article supplied and written by Mr. Aldersley our former president. He will speak to Kally who advises and occasionally helps with the website (Jas Shergill’s brother) with regards to Mr. Soutar’s proposal that potential members be able to sign up online and pay their membership fee at that point. Mr. Toulson said he thinks it is fraught with problems but he will ask.
12. Golf. Mr. Stacey sent his golf report by email. This is just a summary of that email. The 2026 Annual Golf Tournament was held on the 2nd July at Leeds Golf Club (Cobble Hall). In spite of windy conditions, a good day was had by all involved. The main event, the Braime Trophy, was won by Dave Ward, the managing director of M.A. Ford. The member and guest cup, was won by Jas Shergill. Mr. Roper our president and golf captain for the day spoke briefly in the evening about association and presented the prizes. This year the tournament ran at a small loss of £54 because we donated an afternoon golfing session and meal to Kally Shergill for his work on the association website. Mr. Stacey said he has managed to secure a booking for next year’s golf day at the same venue on the 1st July 2027. He has paid a £100 deposit and managed to get everything at the same price as the 2026 booking. He commented that this is significantly less than any other local golf club.
13. Annual Dinner. Mr. Kibler commented that Mr. Soutar has booked The Manor at Drighlington for the 2027 annual dinner but has not contacted him to request a deposit. He will contact Mr. Soutar to make sure a deposit has been paid otherwise we could lose the date.
14. Ian Scholes Funeral. We have sadly lost a longstanding member of council, a number of members attended the funeral but at Pat’s request (Ian’s wife) it was family flowers only. We have agreed to send some flowers to Pat along with a card offering our condolences. Mr. Toulson will put a tribute to Ian on our website.
15. Student Award. Ben King is the recipient of the award. Mr. Aldersley said he will arrange for a small engraved shield to be made to add to the main trophy.
Any other Business. Mr. Toulson will write something on our website about our two nonagenarians on council. John Bentley will be celebrating his 90th birthday in September and Alex Rogers recently celebrated his 93rd birthday in August. Having no other business Mr. Roper closed the meeting.
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