THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.15pm on Thursday 2nd January 2025 at The Corner House Club Leeds.
1. Attendance. J. Aldersley in the chair with G. Roper, M. Murray, S. Stacey, H. Soutar and I. Blakeley.
2. Apologies for absence. I. Scholes, B. Yates, J. Burton, R. Town, A. Kibler, G. Toulson, J. Bentley and A. Rogers.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, dated 7th December 2024 were approved & signed.
4. Matters Arising. None.
5. Treasurers Report. Mr. Kibler was unable to attend the meeting but had sent his financial report by email along with some points which he wanted to be heard at the meeting. The full list of transactions is listed below.
| Date | Transaction | Debit | Credit |
| 04/Dec/24 | Subs – R. Letch | – | 20.00 |
| 06/Dec/24 | Subs – N. Cobbold | – | 20.00 |
| 11/Dec/24 | Subs – B. Jagger | – | 20.00 |
| 16/Dec/24 | Subs – I. Blakeley | – | 20.00 |
| 18/Dec/24 | Subs – R. Tilley and J. Scrupps | – | 40.00 |
| 31/Dec/24 | Subs – M. A. Ford (Corporate) | – | 100.00 |
Balance of Accounts was reported but not published here.
He said in addition to the above we have received a cheque from Tony Wiese but this is not deposited in the bank yet. His email requested that Mr. Murray should calculate the anticipated subscriptions for the year based on the current number of members. He said we have only received £700 so far and this seems far short of expectations. He has sent out the dinner invitations and confirms that proceeds from the raffle/collection at the dinner will go to aid our student apprentice Cameron Pinder in participating in the World Skills Awards for CNC milling. He closed by commenting that he felt the golf is no longer an association event, saying that members should always have the opportunity to play.
6. Correspondence. Mr. Aldersley said he received an email from Mr. Murray advising him that David Brown Gears are recruiting 100 new employees having gained a new contract. He thought that we might be able to get a future visit, however having made enquires, Mr. Aldersley discovered that applicants for the jobs had to sign non- disclosure agreements because the new work was within the nuclear industry, so any visit would be out of the question. He said he had attempted contacting M.A. Ford, one of our corporate members, to see if they will sponsor Cameron Pinder in his effort in the European round of the World Skills Finals for CNC milling. Cameron gained entry by winning the British round of the World Skills Finals in 2024.
7. Membership. Mr. Murray said we have had 4 new applications for membership all brought in by Cameron Pinder. One of the applicants is Cameron’s granddad, a retired engineer, two of the applicants are apprentices and the other is a quality engineer. Mr. Murray has sent out copies of our most recent journal to three of them but had to send out a previous version to the other applicant having run out of books. He suggested when we get the new journal complete we increase the print order by 10 – 20 copies. We discussed the resignations reported at the last meeting, Mr. Stacey commented that Tony Mathers was a regular participant in the golf tournament and is the current record holder having won the Braime Trophy five times, he also commented that Robert Johnson (formerly of Craftsman Tools) had sponsored the golf for many years. Mr Aldersley said Vas, our Leeds Association member in Australia, has relocated. He will forward his new address and contact details to Mr. Murray for the membership list.
8. Student of the Year Award. As mentioned in our previous minutes Cameron Pinder will be the recipient of the student of the year awards at the 2025 Leeds Association Annual Dinner. Harry Soutar (previous winner and current council member) is looking at widening our selection process by creating a design competition that will be offered to groups of students at Leeds University and a number of other local universities and technical colleges. He outlined his ideas for the competition saying he envisaged entries to be in groups with possibly 2 to 4 participants. Projects could either be system engineering based, e.g. transport, or alternatively a sustainability based project, e.g. renewable power. At the end of the project judging would be based on a group presentation which could be a recording, an individual report from each member of the team and an overall design evaluation. We still need to decide on a suitable amount of prize money in order to attract entries. Harry is currently working on creating a flyer for advertising the proposed competition which we could possibly send out to gauge whether there is any interest amongst the student community.
9. Current Programme. Everything is going to plan. Our next event is the visit to M. A. Ford in Leeds this will be on the 30th January 2025, Mr. Aldersley needs to finalise the details. The annual church service is in May, date to be confirmed. We should ask Neil Cobbold (one of our members) whether he can arrange a visit to Caterpillar at Leverton (this would be an addition to our current programme).
10. Next Session. Mr. Aldersley will speak to John Pankhurst of the Keighley Association of Engineers to see if he can help secure a visit to Carnaud Metalbox (CMB). Mr. Pinder (Cameron) is trying to arrange a visit to Reliance Precision at Huddersfield. We discussed the possibility of getting a visit to Leeds University to look around the engineering facilities. Also, Mr. Soutar said he might be able to help us get a visit to look at the Leeds University race-car project that we were a minor sponsor of in the past. However he feels that this would probably have to be a daytime visit.
11. Website. Nothing to report. Mr. Soutar (Harry) will contact Mr. Toulson with regards to email addresses for council members, so that emails to council members come from the website. Therefore eliminating the need to give out personal email addresses for correspondence.
12. Golf. Nothing to report.
13. Annual Dinner. Nothing to report other than the menu has been circulated.
14. Annual Church Service. Date is to be confirmed.
15. Journal. Mr. Bentley will contact the printer regarding formatting.
Any other Business. Having no other business Mr. Aldersley closed the meeting.
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……………………………………………President. ……………….. Date