Since I launched PerfectBee (I registered the domain name in 2015 – yikes!), we have been delighted to introduce tens of thousands of folks to the joy of beekeeping, through our free Introductory Beekeeping Course. We have also been incredibly honored to welcome and engage with our wonderful Colony members.
Today, many hundreds of Colony members – of all levels of experience – enjoy our community for hobbyist beekeepers. Colony includes the sage guidance of our PerfectBee Ambassadors, the friendly and helpful Colony Beekeeping Forum, discounts at the PerfectBee Store, our fascinating, enjoyable, and valuable Colony Cluster events, and much more.
But at the core of all we offer is our Academy Beekeeping Syllabus. Featuring three courses, nine sections and over 100 rich lessons, tests and certificates, Academy is the starting point for many of our members particularly (but not only!) those new to beekeeping.
Today we are announcing some important changes to Academy and also one related to the Colony Member Store discount.
1. A Unified Academy
Until now, our Introductory Course has been a subset of the full Academy syllabus (approx. 40 vs. 100 lessons), but delivered in a quite different way. That is changing today.
We now have a single place to go to access Academy, for both Colony Members and non-members. Please see https://www.perfectbee.com/academy.
From there, you can access these course pages.
On the course pages, 40+lessons from our Introductory Course can be accessed directly, by members and non-members alike. The remaining member-only lessons are tagged as such (see the lock symbol) and Colony members need only make sure they are logged on to have full access to these lessons. Speaking of which…
2. No More Locked Sections
Until today, Sections 1.2 and onwards were “locked” until members passed the test at the end of the previous section. For example, to access Section 1.2 The Life of Bees, members had to pass the test at the end of Section 1.1 The Science of Bees.
While this has been well-received and, quite honestly, there has been virtually no pushback from members (many enjoy the challenge!), we are removing this requirement today.
Colony members now have access to ALL lessons, across all three courses, without the need to pass any sectional tests. Just head to the Academy course pages (see above) and all lessons are there for you to enjoy, at any time.
3. Tests and Certificates – Back Soon!
Does this mean we are removing the tests and the Certificates of Completion? Absolutely not – our members enjoy these too much! But we ask for a little patience as the dust settles from these changes.
We are in the process of updating how our tests integrate into Academy. We expect to have these back online quite soon and we will inform members at that time.
Of course, since we have now removed the need to pass tests to unlock sections, members are not constrained from accessing Academy in any way. But we recognize the enjoyment and the challenge members derive from our tests….so watch this space!
4. PerfectBee Member Discount Change
Finally, we are making a change to how the PerfectBee Member Discount works. As a reminder, Colony membership delivers a 5%, hassle-free* discount on ALL products in the PerfectBee Store, even those products already on sale.
* Automatically applied, no coupons necessary
This discount has been appreciated by both annual and monthly members. Starting Friday February 16th, 2024, the Colony Member Store discount will only be available to members on our annual plan.
Of course, we recognize and respect that we have many monthly members signed up with the understanding that the discount was a benefit of membership. Therefore, all monthly members with an active account on February 16th, 2024 will be “grandfathered” in i.e. they will also see the store discount while they retain their Colony membership.
In Summary
We are excited about these changes to Academy…and rest assured they are just the start of our plans for some great beekeeping content and help we have planned for you in 2024.
And Colony members….don’t forget to register for the first Colony Cluster of the year, on February 22nd! As always, you can find the registration link at your Colony Dashboard.
Happy beekeeping!
Mark Williams – Founder, PerfectBee
