Sometimes the stars and the planets align and everything seems possible. Ideas flow and optimism reigns supreme. The winning roll-over lotto ticket is winking at you as you enter the store, and everything you touch turns to gold…

At other times though an idea pokes its head above the ground and finds conditions less than favourable. Think of a delicate flower pushing its way up through the soil only to discover it’s actually emerged through a newly-laid patio right in front of a demented gardener with a spray-bottle of Roundup at the ready…

What, you may be asking, has any of this to do with something called the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club?

Let me explain. Almost a year ago we here at 10,000 Birds had an idea. In fact we here at 10,000 Birds had what we thought was a very good idea. It was tiny but it began to flower, it was beautiful, and we began to nurture it - and then, lo and behold, the world’s bankers (aka mad gardeners with Round-up at hand) sprayed the world’s economy and made launching a fund-raising conservation initiative - for that is what the idea was - as timely as deciding that 2009 would be the time to pay your monthly salary directly into a Bernie Madoff Investment Fund.

But, you know, like any gardener will tell you, once a weed has grown roots it’s very difficult to get rid of. The basic premise of the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club was good regardless of the state of the economy (and probably more urgent) and its principles were sound. So we’ve been feeding our little plant plenty of fertiliser and we’ve decided that now is as good a time to show it to the world as any other (and, yes, we know Christmas and its destructive effect on credit cards is looming close, but we’re pushing ahead anyway)…

So let’s get our little flower into the light and see what you - our esteemed visitors - think …

As you may know all three of us here at 10,000 Birds (myself, Mike Bergin, and Corey Finger) are passionate about conservation - which is why we joined BirdLife International’s ‘Preventing Extinctions Programme’ as Species Champions in January this year, have supported work on the Endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw since September 2008, fundraised for a winter survey of the Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper (the bird featured in our new logo), work with numerous conservation organisations globally, and highlight conservation projects and threatened species around the world.

We now want to take our commitment a step further - hence [drum roll] …the ‘10,000 Birds Conservation Club’.

What is the ‘10,000 Birds Conservation Club’?

Simply put, a way of raising and distributing funds for conservation through our blog.

• The Conservation Club will have an annual membership fee of 25USD (or currency equivalent) payable into a PayPal account.
• Receipts will go to providing small amounts of funding to small-scale conservation projects (preferably working on Critically Endangered/Endangered birds) that would benefit from rapid funding.
• Which projects we support will be chosen by ourselves and 10,000 Birds Conservation Club Members.

Okay, interesting…why should I join though??

Ah, the 25 dollar question!

We regularly receive books/birding products etc to review, and rather than keep them ourselves we often run ‘give-aways’ - free competitions where we offer those items to our readers.

• Our aim now is to create a closer relationship between 10,000 Birds, Conservation Club Members, and product donors and make these ‘giveaway competitions’ more rewarding for everyone involved.
• We are therefore approaching potential donors (lots of them!) for products for selected ‘give-aways’ that are specifically open to Club Members ONLY.
• Thus for 25USD (or currency equivalent) our Conservation Club Members will have numerous opportunities over twelve months to win books/DVDs/optical gear/annual subscriptions to conservation organisations or get reduced prices on tours/stays at wildlife lodges etc while funding conservation work.

What’s not to love about that eh - support conservation and have the chance to win lots of good stuff for a whole year!

Nice, but why, pray tell, should donors give 10,000 Birds stuff to give away?

Another great question.

They should support the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club by giving us their products because:

• Their generosity will be publicised in the 10,000 Birds sidebar (seen on every page view - 177,874 Page Views Sept/Oct 2009) for a minimum of a week, publicised permanently on the Club Members pages (which we’re in the process of setting up), and in an e-newsletter we plan to send out to Conservation Club Members.
• If the donation is a book/birding product we will of course review it on 10,000 Birds (see our Reviews Page).
• If conservation organisations donate annual subscriptions to their organisations we will run a full-page feature on the organisation.
• Additionally we’re offering all donors an option to talk about conservation etc in interviews on 10,000 Birds (or, eg in the case of publishers, the people they represent). And you know how much we love interviews on this blog…

Additionally we’re assuring everyone we approach that ALL visitors to 10,000 Birds will be able to view these pages - ONLY Conservation Club members will be able to enter the ‘give-away’ competitions though.

Okay, sounds great, but how much is 10,000 Birds taking in ‘salaries/expenses’?

• PayPal will extract a small handling fee of course (there’s no way round that), but apart from shipping costs if we need to send competition prizes out ourselves 10,000 Birds will take absolutely nothing. Nothing. Zip. Nada. No salary, no expenses, no ‘Admin Fees’. Whatever is raised through the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club will be given to conservation projects.

Why? While none of us are millionaires (hence we think it’s fair to have the Club pay shipping costs), Mike, Corey, and I are developing this project because we believe strongly in conservation: despite the hours and hours and hours of hard work [ahem] we are putting into this thing we will not be taking any of the money raised ourselves (and 10,000 Birds Conservation Club Members will be able to view how any money is spent on request).

So, there you go. The 10,000 Birds Conservation Club in all its glory.

Tomorrow I’ll be explaining how you (yes, YOU) can join, all about our ‘join in November and get an extra month free’ plan, and what our first ‘give-away’ competition is going to be (UPDATE 23 Nov: PART TWO now online)…oh heck, I’ll tell you that now…

Yes, the wonderful team at the fabulous Sound Approach have given us all three of their wonderful books - ‘The Sound Approach to Birding’, ‘Petrels night and day’, and ‘Birding from the Hip’ - specifically for a Conservation Club competition and we’re going to give them to ONE lucky Club member.

25 dollars for a chance to win over 100 dollars worth of books? Fantastic eh…

And remember that’s just for starters! Members can enter every single competition we run for just that one little 25 dollar payment - WHICH GOES TO SUPPORT CONSERVATION remember - for twelve months from the date of joining the Conservation Club!

This post has been written as part of our commitment to supporting projects on Critically Endangered/Endangered birds and to Birdlife International’s ‘Preventing Extinctions Programme‘, which we signed up to as Species Champions in January 2009.

Species Champions are ”a growing community of Companies, Institutions and Individuals who share our concerns and demonstrate their commitment to protecting the planet’s natural heritage by funding the work undertaken by our Species Guardians”.

There are different ‘levels’ of Species Champion (requiring different levels of financial commitment). Whilst we joined the PEP at a ‘lower level’ 10,000 Birds is now officially a Species Champion along with such conservation giants as Sir David Attenborough and the British Birdwatching Fair, conservation minded businesses like Swarovski Optik (who also sponsor 10,000 Birds of course), In Focus, and WildSounds (the Species Champions for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper), and a small number of unsung individuals like Dr. Urs-Peter Stäuble, Ed Keeble, and Peter Smith.

• For a full list of Species Champions please go to BirdLife Species Champions ‘Roll of Honour’.