Reflections on Twenty Years of Volunteering and Voluntary Action Scholarship

On 11 September 2001, I was in Liverpool, UK, attending the first Voluntary Action History Society (VAHS) conference convened by Pat Starkey and others at the University of Liverpool. I will never forget the excitement as a young Australian researcher, of being surrounded by like-minded scholars at all stages of their careers, of finding my ‘people’ for the first time. Here was a group of historians, researchers, and practitioners, all of whom were interested in various topics associated with charity, philanthropy, voluntary action, and volunteering, attracted to the conference theme, ‘400 Years of Charity’. It was the beginning of a new century, new ideas, historical scholarship, and collaborations. But all that was overshadowed. I will never forget the news of the ‘twin towers’ attack, spreading like wildfire through the conference dinner, pudding abandoned as we all de-camped to our accommodation and the television set to watch in increasing horror at the events unfolding in New York. The conference abandoned, we all immediately left Liverpool and headed for train stations and airports to get home as fast as we could. American conference attendees were left stranded with airspace closed but my flight to the ‘Far East’ (as some British still quaintly refer my part of the world) was unaffected and I managed to secure a seat home...