2nd December 2009

Network House, Birmingham , United Kingdom

The December 2009 Day Conference was hosted by the Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Birmingham, although the conference itself was held at Network House, a refurbished building now run as a church and conference venue owned by Vineyard Network Church in Birmingham. Forty-three people found their way to the venue from the City Centre to assemble in a large room, facing a stage complete with drum-kit. But rather than take a turn, Pete Alcock, Director of the Third Sector Research Centre, opened the proceedings by welcoming everyone, introduced each of the speakers and chaired the discussions. Five quite different papers were presented, but together they all reported on recent and ongoing empirical work examining aspects of the third sector – volunteering, impact, income inequality, wages and managing change in the third sector.