The origins of our club are appropriately murky. It was started around 2006 by Ron Forrest, it appears primarily because his wife wanted him out of the house. The original name was simply “Men’s club”.
Mike Price found a spreadsheet from late 2006 showing 20 members of whom just 4 are still members of the Gin club:- Mike Clayton, Terry Gale, Martin Vaughan, Mike Price. All had been asked to state their interests which formed the basis of some of the activities of the club.
So the group started and soon acquired its name, Gentlemen in Nyon (GIN), courtesy of Brian Allardyce, and new members so that by May 2011 there were 36 members participating in wine tasting, golf, bridge, sailing, walking and skiing.
Sadly Ron Forrest died in March 2009 and Dave Knewstubb took over the leadership.
All membership details were handled through a spreadsheet which Dave maintained and copied to all members at regular intervals.
Dave died suddenly in 2016 and Ted Wilson took over the leadership.
Ted was keen to create a website and had a free hosting package so we became a web based community. The initial website was just a repository for the membership spreadsheet plus a crude calendar (another spreadsheet). but it was a start and meant an end to emailing the spreadsheet to all members.
Sadly Ted died later the same year and at a lunch in February 2017 (the nearest thing we have ever had to an AGM) we agreed that, since GIN leadership is such a poisoned chalice, we would not have a leader from then on. Furthermore we agreed that the club did not need any membership rules.
Since 2016 the club has expanded to over 90 members. The number of activities has grown to 16, see list below, although one or two are not very active. We keep all membership details in a database so that up to date distribution lists are always available via the Internet. We also have an active blog to record many of our activities. But we still have no leader, essentially no rules and no membership fees and do not need them.