As some of our regular readers may have noticed, we launched a new conservation initiative last week (with two full posts, logos everywhere, Asides in the sidebar - I really hope visitors noticed anyway): the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club, a new way of raising funds for conservation projects that rewards its members while doing it.

It might occasionally appear that we here at 10,000 Birds think that we have all the answers, but let me tell you that it took months of emails (and even a group meeting in New York - we’re so international darling) to formulate the Club - and launching it was a real stomach-churner. Why should people trust us with their money? What about the recession? Would we be able to get enough ‘prizes’ to make the Club worth joining (the answer, as you’ll see over the next few months, is definitely ‘yes’)?

And - crucially - how would fellow bloggers react?

And, yes, of course it matters to us what other bloggers think of initiatives like this. Not just because we would all like to be part of a much larger community and because we are all looking to each other for support no matter how small or how large an initiative or project we’re hoping to promote, but also because we’re all each others peers. There are many highly respected authors, conservationists, natural historians, and birders writing blogs, reading blogs, inputting to other bloggers’ blogs - and to get a pat on the back from someone you respect is always really appreciated (but I don’t need to tell those of us who regularly put their thoughts and feelings online that, do I?).

Anyhow, one such blogger is Larry Jordan who (amongst other things) blogs at The Birder’s Report. Larry is an out-and-out conservationist who supports a number of excellent conservation organisations and projects, and I was genuinely touched to see our new logo heading up his most recent post urging readers and friends to join the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club, and a smaller version of our logo joining such important conservation projects as Operation Migration, Save our Boreal Birds, and the North American Bluebird Society in his sidebar.

We hadn’t written in an option to post the Conservation Club logo on other blogs simply because - as I wrote at the top of this post - we couldn’t be certain how it would be received by other bloggers. Perhaps we should have been more confident, because if birders like Larry Jordan thinks the Club is worth highlighting then why wouldn’t other bloggers?

So, how about we do this: if other bloggers would be good enough to have the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club logo on their blog then we’ll add a prominent link back on the Club ‘mainpage’. Right now that’s not exactly going to hurtle you up the Google rankings, but the Conservation Club is only going to get bigger as the months go on (starting from zero you have to hope the only way is up anyway), and we’ll be working to get people to the ‘mainpage’ and your link.

If you’d be kind enough to support us in this way, please either mail Charlie (charlie10000birds AT gmail.com) and I’ll email you the 160px x 156px image at the top of the page, or just save the image yourself. If you do the latter please let us know so we can add the link back!

Thanks.

Earlier in this post I asked the question, ‘Would we be able to get enough ‘prizes’ to make the Club worth joining?’ Of course I think at 25USD/year (plus a free month if you join now!) it’s worth joining anyway, but a few incentives don’t hurt.

Well, we’ve already started a competition to win a set of three superb Sound Approach titles, (‘The Sound Approach to Birding’, ‘Petrels night and day’, and ‘Birding from the Hip‘) - click on the Conservation Club mainpage for the details - and very soon we’ll be posting a competition to win membership subscriptions to the very excellent UK-based conservation organisation the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, based at Slimbridge. Membership includes free entry to all of the Trust’s nine wetland centres, free Trust magazines, and the general good feeling that comes with being a part of an organisation that is working extremely hard to save wetlands and threatened waterfowl around the world.

And that’s just for starters, I can promise you. We’re going to be giving away as many goodies as we can get our hands on throughout 2010 and beyond - and raising what we hope will be some serious amounts of funding for conservation projects whilst we do it…

I’m in danger of getting textually a little over-blown so I’ll stop before I sound like a small-town Mayor on the stump, but before I go, on behalf of Mike, Corey and myself, can I just thank everyone who’s joined the Conservation Club so far and thanks too for spreading the word. We really do appreciate it!