any interest in a Brewing / Wine Club in

[hvac36]

Binghamton, NY area? A few friends and I are working on it.. Need input on things you would like to see or learn..

Jim S...

 

[Pumpkinman]

Jim, good luck to you and the club, it can be a lot of fun. I just founded the Hudson Valley Wine and Homebrew club, AHA registered.

 

[joeswine]

wine clubs

WINE CLUBS THE UPSIDE AND DOWN...


I BELONG TO THE SOUTH JERSEY WINE MAKERS, IN THE BEGINNING THE DRIVE TO LEARN WAS PARAMOUNT FOR ALL OF US WHO JOINED,WE HAD PEOPLE FROM THE WINE INDUSTRY IT'S SELF AS WELL AS PEOPLE WHO OWNED BREW SUPPLY STORES,WE HAD A FULL ARRAY OF PEOPLE FROM THE NEWBIE TO THE SOMEWHAT KNOWING WHAT THEY WERE DOING.

WINE CLUBS,THE HARVEST...

FOR THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OR SO EVERY THING WENT JUST PERFECT ,THEN CHANGE, PEOPLE FOR WHAT EVER REASON WEATHER IT WAS WORK OR PERSONAL REASONS STARTED TO DROP OUT,AND THAT WAS TO BE EXPECTED AND WHEN SOME LEFT SOME JOINED,THE MAIN POINT TO ALL OF THIS IS THAT WINE CLUBS ARE EXCELLENCT EXPERIENCE AND i WOULDN'T CHANGE ANY THING THAT HAPPENED FOR THE WORLD ,THE PEOPLE,EXPERIENCE AND COMEROUDERARY,,AS WELL AS THE KNOWLEDGE,GIVEN AND RECIEVED WAS SUPPER,SO IF YOU CAN JOIN A WINE GROUP AND NOT JUST ON LINE MY ADVICE TO YOU IS DO IT.

 

[hvac36]

Jim, good luck to you and the club, it can be a lot of fun. I just founded the Hudson Valley Wine and Homebrew club, AHA registered.

Tom just noticed your from Poughkeepsie, I left that area 21 years ago. Left right about the time IBM was closing down.

 

[hvac36]

WINE CLUBS THE UPSIDE AND DOWN...


I BELONG TO THE SOUTH JERSEY WINE MAKERS, IN THE BEGINNING THE DRIVE TO LEARN WAS PARAMOUNT FOR ALL OF US WHO JOINED,WE HAD PEOPLE FROM THE WINE INDUSTRY IT'S SELF AS WELL AS PEOPLE WHO OWNED BREW SUPPLY STORES,WE HAD A FULL ARRAY OF PEOPLE FROM THE NEWBIE TO THE SOMEWHAT KNOWING WHAT THEY WERE DOING.

WINE CLUBS,THE HARVEST...

FOR THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OR SO EVERY THING WENT JUST PERFECT ,THEN CHANGE, PEOPLE FOR WHAT EVER REASON WEATHER IT WAS WORK OR PERSONAL REASONS STARTED TO DROP OUT,AND THAT WAS TO BE EXPECTED AND WHEN SOME LEFT SOME JOINED,THE MAIN POINT TO ALL OF THIS IS THAT WINE CLUBS ARE EXCELLENCT EXPERIENCE AND i WOULDN'T CHANGE ANY THING THAT HAPPENED FOR THE WORLD ,THE PEOPLE,EXPERIENCE AND COMEROUDERARY,,AS WELL AS THE KNOWLEDGE,GIVEN AND RECIEVED WAS SUPPER,SO IF YOU CAN JOIN A WINE GROUP AND NOT JUST ON LINE MY ADVICE TO YOU IS DO IT.

Joe just trying to see who is interested and seeing if we can get one going. Agree with everything you said..
Thanks...

 

[JohnT]

I agree with Joe, but would like to put my one experience and spin on it.

There are definitely ups and downs to a winemaking club. I have been managing awine club for about 20 years. Everything was fun and happy. We had great timesand I have no regrets. The club grew and grew each year. It all was real fun,right up until "the ponytail" decided to get involved.

The ponytail spent time learning what he could from me. Once hebecame confident in winemaking, the fun really began. He started bossing the othermembers around, playing politics with the other members to get his own way, andconstantly criticizing me on my methods. I found myself constantly having to defend my decisions and plans to him. Each time the ponytail would not get his own way, he would get worse and worse. I was absolutely stunned on how muchone person can suck the fun out of things.

The "pony tail" ended upgoing his own way with a couple of the other members, causing me the loss of acouple of good friendships in the process. It left me in a state where I justdidn't want to make wine anymore.

So, my advice is to be very careful on who you let into the club. Interviewthem and make sure that each person is a good fit. Lay down clear and preciserules so that there are no problems later! Also make sure that you have a good method for kicking people that get out of hand out of the club .

BTW, The moral to the above story is this.. Behind every ponytail is a realhorses A$$! LOL.

 

[g8keeper]

I agree with Joe, but would like to put my one experience and spin on it.

There are definitely ups and downs to a winemaking club. I have been managing awine club for about 20 years. Everything was fun and happy. We had great timesand I have no regrets. The club grew and grew each year. It all was real fun,right up until "the ponytail" decided to get involved.

The ponytail spent time learning what he could from me. Once hebecame confident in winemaking, the fun really began. He started bossing the othermembers around, playing politics with the other members to get his own way, andconstantly criticizing me on my methods. I found myself constantly having to defend my decisions and plans to him. Each time the ponytail would not get his own way, he would get worse and worse. I was absolutely stunned on how muchone person can suck the fun out of things.

The "pony tail" ended upgoing his own way with a couple of the other members, causing me the loss of acouple of good friendships in the process. It left me in a state where I justdidn't want to make wine anymore.

So, my advice is to be very careful on who you let into the club. Interviewthem and make sure that each person is a good fit. Lay down clear and preciserules so that there are no problems later! Also make sure that you have a good method for kicking people that get out of hand out of the club .

BTW, The moral to the above story is this.. Behind every ponytail is a realhorses A$$! LOL.

john, not trying to make light of the situation, as you and i have exchanged our experiences with clubs, but i'm surprised you changed your nemesis' name....i thought you used to refer to him as "the scourge"....i guess that shows some growth in dealing with your feelings with this person....good job!!!!....

 

[g8keeper]

as you can tell from my previous post, i have also been a member of a once truly "organized" fermentation club....i too would not trade the education and fun experiences i had with my club as well...BUT just like joe and john have warned, there can be drawbacks as well....if it were me, i would keep the club relatively small....the club i belonged to had a maximum limit of 25, but once we began to hit that limit is when chaos ensued, and you begun to have "clubs" within THE club...once that happens, and the harmony that may have once been established is gone, the club's demise is truly inevitable...but as stated, it can truly be a very fun, rewarding, and educational experience...

 

[olusteebus]

I think I would like it to be very informal and very local, not spread out over a large geographic area. Very small also. It would be good to have informal meet ups in members homes.

 

[JohnT]

I think I would like it to be very informal and very local, not spread out over a large geographic area. Very small also. It would be good to have informal meet ups in members homes.

Not wanting to speak for G8keeper, I think that both of us kept it very local. It didn't help.

I always have believed in tuttle's law... "The chances of you meeting a complete jerk rises in proportion to the number of people you meet".



G8 - LOL, "the scourge" and "the Ponytail" are the only clean monikers I have for the man.

 

[g8keeper]

you are correct, john....it was local....sure, we had a few members that did have to drive a bit farther than others, but for the most part we were all from the metro-detroit and port huron/st.clair county, areas....so i don't think keeping it local is the key, so much as keeping the club to a more intimate, so to speak number, like say 12-15 people....once our club hit our max, the once united club begun to divide....

 

[JohnT]

you are correct, john....it was local....sure, we had a few members that did have to drive a bit farther than others, but for the most part we were all from the metro-detroit and port huron/st.clair county, areas....so i don't think keeping it local is the key, so much as keeping the club to a more intimate, so to speak number, like say 12-15 people....once our club hit our max, the once united club begun to divide....

"tuttle's law" at work!

 

[g8keeper]

"tuttle's law" at work!

....as in "orange county choppers", tuttle???...

 

[joeswine]

wine clubs

well finally caught up on his thread,I think all of you are correct in your thinking ,however,small or large the size doesn't seam to matter,but distance does,its a matter of logistics,where to go this month,12 mos. in a year shouldn't be a problem with 25 members ,but it is.a lot of people can not fit that type of personnel in there homes or basements,winter mode,summer mode ,outside we go ,YOU MIGHT THINK THERES enough places problem is (vacations)OK, so you work through that ,back to winter mode need indoor space,except for the month of December we have our annual party at the renuliT winery,so lets break the year down this way.

12 month.=Jan,my place,Feb open,mar.bob matte,April Gino pintos ,may open, June tom, July Joe wann, Aug. open ,sept,open , Oct southwinds winery, Nov,open and back to DEC ,party (2012 we didn't have one).

The only thing you hope to get done is develop good relationships with those who have the same basic interest as you do,while it last,it can be rewarding,it also can be quit troublesome and like was stated you can lose friends ships, ,you though were great, in a heart beat, but with out the club I wouldn't have had such a FULFILLING experience in this craft nor would I have meet such interring people,yet alone this forum,so yes form a club no matter how small or larger it will take ON a life force of it's own and there is nothing you can do to stop it ,just sit back ,learn ,enjoy and engage in life..

 

[hvac36]

Thanks everyone for the input. Wine Club, Brewing Club, Vol Fire Dept all the same issues lol..
Club will be at 1 location all the time, not just a wine thing but also a Brewing Club as well.
Again thanks all.

 

[g8keeper]

Thanks everyone for the input. Wine Club, Brewing Club, Vol Fire Dept all the same issues lol..
Club will be at 1 location all the time, not just a wine thing but also a Brewing Club as well.
Again thanks all.

ours was essentially a 1 location deal as well, since one of the charter members had a nice size garage with a wood burning stove....that served as our clubhouse....we would get together 2x a month, once to conduct club business, and then again later in the month to brew....occasionally we would perhaps have a special event or brew session at another member's home, because they also had a nice heated garage, but this one also had a nice bar area as well...but once again, i definitely say go for organizing the club....i cherish the memories i had with this club, from the educational aspect as well as the friendship and comeraderie....