Happy New Year and welcome to an exciting 2011 for all things volunteering. To kick off the year, we are launching this - our new blog on all things volunteering in the RSPB. 

This is a new initiative for us and particularly me, so be gentle with us. Myself and a number of other staff will be posting here regularly to keep you updated on what’s happening with volunteering.

We'll ask for your feedback on things, share our thoughts and generally give you the gossip on all things volunteering.

2010 was a great year for the RSPB volunteering-wise. Over 16,000 of you got involved as volunteers with us. That’s more people than were in Centre Court to watch the men’s final at Wimbledon! 

You gave us a gift of time of over 900,000 hours – fantastic.

If you’re reading this and you're not a volunteer – why not? No, seriously, if you want to know more about all the fantastic ways you can get involved, check out our volunteering pages

As it’s a new year, I’ve got a little challenge for you: how can we talk about our volunteering figures in a more meaningful way? For example, we could talk about how many London buses all our 16,000-plus volunteers would fill, or how many full time staff the hours equate to. I’d love to hear your thoughts/ideas on how we might present these figures in a more interesting/involving way. 

Thinking caps on and lets hear your great ideas! Please join the Community today (it's easy and free!) and then you can share your thoughts below.

Alan Murray

Head of Volunteering for the RSPB