We look forward to seeing all our Bee Group members at our monthly meeting this Friday at 3:30 pm in the Meeting Room at the Shed.  We have something a bit different and special planned for this month.  To get things rolling Bee Group member Ted Graham will give a general presentation on hive location and protection from the elements.  We will then apply these principles to "workshop" a plan for a brand new apiary soon to be set up in the foothills of the Porongorups.  Simon Powell, another of our Bee Group members and one of our first trainees, has just purchased this property and has assembled detailed photographic and topographical resources - including drone footage (!) of the terrain.  Simon will lead us through a military style tactical planning exercise to determine where the hives should go, orientation, protection, etc.  You wont want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime application of military planning principles to beekeeping!  To round out our meeting if there is time, Steve Rodgers and Curt McDonald will briefly demo two new very-low-cost technologies for beekeepers, one for measuring the moisture content of honey and the other for monitoring internal hive temperature and humidity.   Should be a very interesting afternoon on several fronts, and of course we will roll right on into the social hour, so please book in using the invite attached to this email if you would like to join us for some wine and nibblies afterwards. 

Woodworking Machinery Induction (Blue Dot) – Phases 1 & 2 All Members who wish to use the woodworking machinery in the Machine Room will need to complete Phase 1 & Phase 2 of the Woodworking Machinery Induction Training. Please Note that Members must have completed the Red Dot course before enrolling in this Blue Dot course? This Course will be conducted in two Phases over two consecutive weeks (9am - 11am) so you must be able to commit to both sessions before purchasing a ticket. Each Phase will be approximately a two hour duration. There will be a maximum of 3 persons for each Session. The Cost of this course (for both Phases) is $20.  If after booking, for some reason you cannot attend the training, please advise the Woodworking Team Lead, Michael Cahill on 0459062090 as soon as possible, so we can arrange another session for you.  If you cancel or are a “no show” on the day you will lose your $20 fee so please, only book if you can commit to the two consecutive weeks. Payments can be made online by secure credit card.  Once you have completed both phases of the Woodworking Machinery Induction your Membership Badge will be updated to replace the Red Dot with a Blue Dot.  This will reflect that you have completed all the necessary Woodworking Training and are ready to undertake any Woodworking projects in the Shed. 

All Members who intend to be part of the Woodworking Group will need to complete this Power Tools Induction Training. There is a once off Cost of $10 for this Training Course, which can be paid when you purchase a ticket. There will be a maximum of 3 persons for each Training Session.  If after booking, for some reason you cannot attend the training, please advise the Woodworking Team Lead, Michael Cahill on 0459062090 as soon as possible, so we can arrange another session for you. The successful completion of the Red Dot Training is a pre-requisiste to booking the Blue Dot Woodwork Machinery Course. Once you have completed this Training, your Membership Badge will updated to show a Red Dot and enable you to undertake any projects in the Main Workshop that utilise only Power Tools. 

CNC Router Course for Beginners Want to learn how to design cnc projects and run them on the cnc router? John Hassell will be running a beginner's course on cnc routing and the design software VCarve Pro. He will help you work through a simple project in VCarve Pro step by step so you can take home your own name plaque you have designed yourself. To participate in this course you will need a laptop computer with a mouse. You will also need to download and install a trial copy of VCarve Pro from https://www.vectric.com/products/vcarve-pro The course will be held in the Shed Meeting Room on Saturday 20th August running from 09:30 am until 12 noon. There will be a limit of ten places on the course so book now. Tickets available at https://msclaremont.tidyhq.com/public/schedule/events/45394-beginner-s-cnc-router-course See you there. John Hassell CNC Router Group

Workshop (Photography members only) Photoshop is a comprehensive graphics package used by amateurs as well as professional graphic artists and photographers.  Ian Warne is a TAFE lecturer in this package and will lead us in the second of two one day workshops on “Photoshop”.  Ian will guide us through the key functions and techniques of Photoshop.   If you missed Workshop #1 you may still attend as we will review work done with a practical exercise guided by Ian.   Ian will expand on use of the brush tools and different special repair tools will be explored so we can move on to other techniques for editing and improving our photos.  We will also look at Layers in Photoshop to remove a background and replacing it with a different one.   Attendees to bring: If possible, a laptop computer with Photoshop software (If Yes please select the relevant "ticket" below).  (Even if you don't have a laptop or Photoshop software you are still encouraged to attend by sharing a computer). Location Due to scheduling conflicts on Thursday mornings this workshop has been relocated to a meeting room in Subiaco organised by John B. As it is a secure building, once you have registered, I will send an email on Wednesday morning with further details to access the meeting room.   Catering Lunch will be ordered from a local cafe and will consist of a mix of bao buns and fresh fruit. For morning tea we will order some take-away coffees, from a nearby cafe, and share a Rotary fruit cake.    Cost is $18.50 payable by credit card.  For planning and catering purposes we request that you please make your payment by 5pm Tuesday 16 August 2022.   Sundowner (Photography members only) This workshop will conclude with our usual Sundowner for attendees, with a chance to talk informally with our presenter, Ian with some wine and nibbles at a cost of $10 per person.  Please make your payment by 5pm Tuesday 16 August 2022.   I hope you can join us for this very interesting Workshop.   Mike Somerville-Brown

From South Asia, we are moving back to Europe to bring you the traditional Spanish dish Paella with Chicken and Chorizo for our next SCMS Monthly Luncheon. First-time Chef de Partie Mark Elliott will direct a Kitchen team who will use a giant-sized paella pan over a gas burner to cook this traditional Spanish rice dish under our front patio. If you come early, you can observe this spectacle out in the open. The paella will be served with a fresh garden salad and this will be followed by a "Torta de Santiago", which is a traditional Spanish almond cake for dessert. Cost for food will be $15 with beer, wine and soft drinks at standard prices.  As usual, we require pre-payment with your registration.  You will be able to get a credit towards a future event if you cancel at least 1 day before this luncheon. No-shows on the day will forfeit their ticket fee. Members who intend to use a credit carried over from a previous event, please reply to this email and we will book you in.  Please register early to avoid the disappointment of missing this special occasion as the lunch room capacity is strictly limited.  We hope you will join us!

All Members who intend to be part of the Woodworking Group will need to complete this Power Tools Induction Training. There is a once off Cost of $10 for this Training Course, which can be paid when you purchase a ticket. There will be a maximum of 3 persons for each Training Session.  If after booking, for some reason you cannot attend the training, please advise the Woodworking Team Lead, Michael Cahill on 0459062090 as soon as possible, so we can arrange another session for you. The successful completion of the Red Dot Training is a pre-requisiste to booking the Blue Dot Woodwork Machinery Course. Once you have completed this Training, your Membership Badge will updated to show a Red Dot and enable you to undertake any projects in the Main Workshop that utilise only Power Tools. 

Woodworking Machinery Induction (Blue Dot) – Phases 1 & 2 All Members who wish to use the woodworking machinery in the Machine Room will need to complete Phase 1 & Phase 2 of the Woodworking Machinery Induction Training. Please Note that Members must have completed the Red Dot course before enrolling in this Blue Dot course? This Course will be conducted in two Phases over two consecutive weeks (9am - 11am) so you must be able to commit to both sessions before purchasing a ticket. Each Phase will be approximately a two hour duration. There will be a maximum of 3 persons for each Session. The Cost of this course (for both Phases) is $20.  If after booking, for some reason you cannot attend the training, please advise the Woodworking Team Lead, Michael Cahill on 0459062090 as soon as possible, so we can arrange another session for you.  If you cancel or are a “no show” on the day you will lose your $20 fee so please, only book if you can commit to the two consecutive weeks. Payments can be made online by secure credit card.  Once you have completed both phases of the Woodworking Machinery Induction your Membership Badge will be updated to replace the Red Dot with a Blue Dot.  This will reflect that you have completed all the necessary Woodworking Training and are ready to undertake any Woodworking projects in the Shed. 

All Members who intend to be part of the Woodworking Group will need to complete this Power Tools Induction Training. There is a once off Cost of $10 for this Training Course, which can be paid when you purchase a ticket. There will be a maximum of 3 persons for each Training Session.  If after booking, for some reason you cannot attend the training, please advise the Woodworking Team Lead, Michael Cahill on 0459062090 as soon as possible, so we can arrange another session for you. The successful completion of the Red Dot Training is a pre-requisiste to booking the Blue Dot Woodwork Machinery Course. Once you have completed this Training, your Membership Badge will updated to show a Red Dot and enable you to undertake any projects in the Main Workshop that utilise only Power Tools. 

This month we have Leigh Gerreyn providing us with a selection of wonderful and perhaps challenging Italian wines to tease, tantalise and titilate your palate or, in non-wine writer talk, simply have a good drink. The above is shot from the Barolo area but there are so many grape types and areas to choose from to enjoy and keep us guessing.  As usual please register your attendance by purchasing a ticket via the Shed link.  If you have difficulties please email

All Members who intend to be part of the Woodworking Group will need to complete this Power Tools Induction Training. There is a once off Cost of $10 for this Training Course, which can be paid when you purchase a ticket. There will be a maximum of 3 persons for each Training Session.  If after booking, for some reason you cannot attend the training, please advise the Woodworking Team Lead, Michael Cahill on 0459062090 as soon as possible, so we can arrange another session for you. The successful completion of the Red Dot Training is a pre-requisiste to booking the Blue Dot Woodwork Machinery Course. Once you have completed this Training, your Membership Badge will updated to show a Red Dot and enable you to undertake any projects in the Main Workshop that utilise only Power Tools. 

Gents, Our next monthly meeting is this coming Friday, July 29th.  This month we have a double header, with two presentations for the price of one! (OK, well the meeting is free, so...) Next Friday our Induction Leader Steve Rodgers will give a presentation on role of frame rotation as an important part of ongoing hive maintenance.  Steve will talk about what frame rotation means, why it is important, the various ways to do it, and what can happen if we don't.  The whole topic of frame rotation follows on perfectly from the great talk on swarming we had a few weeks ago from resident Shed bee guru John Chadwick (and his lovely partner!).  As the spring swarming season bears down on our hives you will not want to miss this! Honey Czar Stephen Keenihan has recently been hard at work building the Shed's first horizontal hive!  With the recent demise of one of its colonies, Stephen's Hive Group approached the Leadership Team with an idea to replace it with a horizontal hive which would have an apiary footprint equivalent to two normal "vertical" hives.  We know there are a number of Bee Group members who are interested in this topic, and it exactly the kind of innovation / learning project we are looking to encourage at the Shed.  Next Friday Stephen is going to show us the new build and explain how this set up will triple the honey production of a normal hive, or, well, at least make it an easier hive to manage.  A Shed first, and something those of us exhausted from stacking heavy supers will want to know more about. As per last month, the meeting is free but if you want to join us for the social hour afterwards you will need to follow the link below on this email and book in to cover the cost of $10 for drink and nibblies.  Would be good to see a few more of our group members stay behind to chat, as we know know they have plenty to share.