100 down, 400 to go – are you one of them?

At the start of July, we set out a challenge, to find 500 new members before the end of the year. I’m delighted to say that, a little over two weeks later, 100 of you have risen to that challenge and signed up.

From each of our 100 staff to each of our 100 new members - thank you.

Each one of you is helping someone to do their job. Whether it’s a fisheries scientist, an field ecologist, an advisor, a policy officer, a designer or a farm manager, every single member is making a meaningful contribution to our work.

This has been a difficult year for everyone. It’s well-publicised that we are looking at a considerable shortfall in income this year, and possibly for years to come. I opened by diary this week and when I saw it blocked out for Game Fair preparation, my heart sank. In any other year, we would be putting together displays, loading vans, sorting out staff rotas – all in preparation for a community coming together.

Well, for the past fortnight, it has felt like that community has rallied around in a different way. We launched the 500 Club with some very kind words from Rachel Carrie, calling the GWCT an organisation ‘we simply couldn’t survive without’. Since then, not only have our supporters been stepping up to become members, we’ve received support from all different walks of life.

Mary Colwell, the wonderful producer and writer whose passion for curlew might well be unparalleled, spoke out about the need for sound, peer-reviewed science, chef Jose Souto said that it’s ‘crucially important that we all support the GWCT and its work’ and Rob Denny of the Monnow Rivers Association said we have ‘helped transform our environment’.

I was touched when Richard Negus, a long-time supporter of ours, contacted me to say the following:

If you would like to share what the GWCT means to you, please email me editor@gwct.org.uk.

At events, dinners or down the pub, I’ll often end up talking to people about my work and they’re always most surprised to know we have just 20,000 members. To achieve the work we do with that support shows just how passionate and generous every one of you is.

In the past 12 months we’ve achieved some remarkable things – tagged 10,000 juvenile salmon, had 37 letters published in the press, saw our 97^th successful GWCT PhD student, published over 30 scientific papers and made a serious contribution to the consultation on general licences. None of this is possible without our members.

If you’ve ever considered joining, now is the time to really make a difference.