The Colorado State Beekeepers’ Association (CSBA) is excited to host the 38th annual WAS conference in 2015! It will be held in Beautiful Boulder on October 1-3, 2015. It is a magnificent time of year to visit Colorado. Just this evening, I looked out my back window to see a sow and two cinnamon bear cubs running north (past the beehives as vs. towards) thankfully. The aspen are in full golden regalia; the mountains white-topped. Jerry is correct in saying that there are a lot of recreational opportunities here. But, whether you are an avid outdoorsman or just an avid admirer of the great outdoors, we welcome you to our beautiful state.
The theme for the 2015 conference will be: Healthy Bee/Bee Healthy. The first two days will be devoted to issues surrounding bee health. The final day will be open to the public and will be geared towards promoting bees, and the products of the hive, for human health.
The CSBA Winter Meeting will be held on November 8th and we will begin the formal organizational tasks of hosting the WAS conference. Although the venue and theme have been decided, there still is a LOT of work to be done. Do you have any ideas or thoughts that you would like to share? Please do so. I can be reached at 970-213-3099 or at president@coloradobeekeepers.org.
Fran asked me to write a bit about myself, too. I was always a bit buggy in my youth and collected bugs in 4-H. I loved it – but stopped doing it when I became a teenager. I went to college and earned my Master of Business Administration from the University of New Mexico in 1982. I worked for most of my corporate life in the foodservice industry.
I have been married to Mike for 33 years. Mike is an oil and gas consultant for Nobel Energy. We have two sons, Patrick who is a 5th year senior at Colorado State University and will (finally!) graduate this May with a degree in Natural Resource Tourism. Younger son, Christopher, is a freshman at Arizona State University. He currently is in their design program.
I began keeping bees because of my friend Tom Theobold’s ability to write about bees making them seem like the most magical things! I have been keeping bees for about 15 years now, and began with two hives after attending the Boulder County Beekeepers’ Association’s beginning beekeeping class. I now have 50 hives. My company is called Bee Squared-Beth’s Bees. We sell retail and bulk honey, beeswax candles, and soap. The business has been growing by leaps and bounds, and is both time-consuming and gratifying.
I entered into the management side of beekeeping when I was asked to run for president of the Northern Colorado Beekeepers’ Association (NCBA). I was president of NCBA for four years. I was elected as president of the CSBA four years ago. I sit on the Board of the Pollinator Stewardship Council and on the Advisory Committee for the College of Bioagricultural Sciences at Colorado State University. I volunteer for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, as well as CSU’s CP Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity – say that three times fast!
I am honored to serve as president of the Western Apicultural Society for 2015 and look forward to seeing you in Boulder next year.
Beth Conrey
2015 WAS President