THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.15pm on Thursday 6th December 2012 at the Cornerhouse Club Leeds
1. Attendance. J. Shergill (President) in the chair with A. Kibler, J. Aldersley, B. Yates, J. Bentley, J. McClarty, A. Rogers, and I. Blakeley.
2. Apologies for absence. M. Murray, T. Ashton, K. Hegarty & G. Toulson.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, dated 4th October were, approved & signed.
4. Matters Arising. None.
5. Treasurers Report. Mr. Bentley reported the following transactions:-
Current Account Balance – No longer disclosed in Council minutes
Credits: –
Subscriptions – £450.00
Payments since October meeting: –
Printing – £50.00
Meal for Lecturer (September) – £46.00
Room Hire (Corner House Club) – £105.00
Room Hire RAE Cleckheaton – £100.00
Imax tickets (Ladies Evening) – £105.00
Savings Account Balance – No longer disclosed in Council minutes.
Mr. Bentley produced figures relating to Leeds Association of Engineers committed annual expenditure following the issues he raised last month about the losses we made in the last year. He said part of the losses were due to the way subscriptions from the membership arrived in our account in the previous year thus bolstering our income that year and lowering it this year. He reported that our projected income for the year would be around £1418 inclusive of interest on investments. Our committed expenditure for the year is £1273, this does not include any subsidies we give the membership for example we normally subsidise the ladies evening. He went on to say whilst the situation is not dire we should keep a close eye on expenditure. Mr. Bentley said the next event on our programme is the ladies evening for which we have currently purchased 26 tickets at a cost of £175.20, 20 of these tickets have been allocated. We discussed how much we should charge the membership and agreed £12 / pair of tickets. Mr. Bentley said that he would give Mr. Rogers a £100 float to cover ongoing expenses in arranging the annual dinner.
6. Annual Church Service. The Annual Church Service will be on the 12th May 2013; Mr. Shergill will attend and read the lesson.
7. Correspondence. Mr. Yates has been in contact with 3M Buckley Information Centre a subsidiary of Huddersfield University and asked if Leeds Association could have a look round.
8. Current Programme. Feedback from the membership is that they are happy with the diversity of the current programme, there seems to be something to interest everyone. Our next event is the ladies evening, a visit to the Imax cinema in Bradford. The first event of 2013 will be a factory visit to Thomas Broadbent & Sons (Huddersfield).
9. Membership. Mr. Murray was absent from the meeting but sent an email advising us that on sending out requests for subscriptions to the membership he has received three resignations. Mr. Bentley has managed to recruit a new member. He proposed that Mr. Malcolm Crane should become a full member of the association, Mr. Kibler seconded the proposal and this was agreed by a show of hands of council members present. This will go for ratification by the membership at our next open meeting.
10. Next Session. Mr. Shergill said he spoke to a company who make fire retardant cloth for settees. He asked whether we could have a factory visit. They agreed in principle but are unable to accommodate us in the evening. It was suggested that this might make an extra event for our retired members.
11. Website. Mr. Kibler told us that Mr. Toulson had been unable to access the website from Malaysia. This was due to our hosting site Namesco requiring our Webmaster to be given permission to access the site from that specific location. Mr. Kibler went onto our Namesco account and changed the permissions to allow Mr. Toulson access. However a further problem developed when Kally (Mr. Shergill’s brother) updated the Namesco software, this resulted in us not being able to edit the website. This is due to a conflict between the updated hosting software and Word Press. Kally will find the solution and get the website up and running again. With regard to the proposed forum on the website. Mr. Toulson and Kally feel that the best way to operate this is through additional software rather than using email. They will investigate further and report back. Mr. Shergill said that now we are putting our council minutes on the website they should not give information about the balances in Leeds Associations bank accounts. Leeds Association members can access this information by asking a member of council in person.
12. Golf. Nothing to report.
13. Annual Dinner. Mr. Rogers said he received nine completed questionnaires about the annual dinner. Two of these were from council members and one from a trustee, leaving just six from the general membership. One of the respondents said he felt we have too many speakers and suggested this should be limited to the paid speaker and the President, much in keeping with the thoughts of council. Another respondent said he felt the venue no longer matched the grandeur of the occasion. We discussed the format for the evening and decided that the vicar should open the evening with a brief welcome followed by him saying grace. Mr. Rogers has briefed the Lord Mayor Anne Castle on the history of Leeds Association and will ask her to keep her speech brief (no longer than five minutes), she will be bringing her husband to the dinner. The main speaker for the evening has a presentation that lasts between 45 minutes and one hour and this could be followed by a question and answer session. We hope to keep the people proposing the toasts to do so without a protracted speech. The hope is to limit the number of intervals and breaks in procedure to allow our members and guests an opportunity to talk socially after the formal dinner. Mr. Rogers circulated a copy of the menu that we are all very happy with, there will be no cheese and biscuits this year to enable us to maintain our price of £25. We discussed how long we are going to continue offering a annual dinner when there is so little take up from the membership, it was suggested that we might make the 150th in 2015 our last! This should be discussed when more council members are present. We discussed how hard it is to find a good speaker at reasonable cost, we have a relative of Mr. McClarty who will give us a talk on Vulcan Bombers at the 2015 dinner but we need to find someone appropriate for 2014. Mr. Kibler said he feels we should talk about whether we should be giving a free annual dinner ticket to people who give us lectures / factory visits in the future.
14. Lecture Venue. Mr. Yates said he feels we should have one prestige lecture at Leeds University annually. He says we could get a free lecture theatre in the Civil Engineering block.
Any other Business. Having no other business Mr. Shergill closed the meeting.
……………………………………………President. ……………….. Date