16 Dec 2020 | Posted In Bob's Blog (MALG updates)

2020 is rapidly drawing to a close and what a year it’s been! Following the success of the inaugural meeting of our brand new MALG East Anglia Group on 3 December and the MALG North East & Yorkshire meeting last week, we’ve now wrapped up all of our regional and national meetings and events for the year. All that remains for us to do is wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a collaborative New Year full of opportunities to continue ‘working together to improve the lives of people in debt’ starting with the re-launch of the MALG Friday Forum running fortnightly from 8 January 2021 (more details on that soon) and the first MALG National Members Meeting of 2021 on 28 January (the agenda for which will be released in the new year).

But the hard work isn’t over for our team yet. We’re still working on our exciting plans for 2021 and our virtual event hosting expertise has clearly not gone unnoticed as we’re now being approached by other organisations to support and host their virtual events too. The next one we’re hosting is on behalf of the Vulnerability Registration Service. Their first online webinar on Thursday 17 December 2020 is about ‘Identifying Vulnerability Through Data Sharing’ and you can register for via Eventbrite here using passcode VRSDEC20.

If you feel your organisation would benefit from the MALG team supporting you with the hosting of your own virtual events, please get in touch on info@malg.org.uk for a bespoke quote.

Introducing ‘Friends of MALG’

As a not-for-profit delivering services that were previously centred around face-to-face events, 2020 has been challenging for MALG. We are very confident going into 2021 that we can continue to not only deliver on but continue to enhance our extremely valuable membership offering through our new membership structure. However, we do still need some additional support.

We now therefore welcome the generous contributions and support of ‘Friends of MALG’ who provide additional funding to enhance the activity of our lean team of consultants and volunteers and enable us to add further value to our work, especially in response to the Coronavirus crisis.

Bespoke sponsorship packages can come in either the form of a financial contribution or pro-bono resources and either be one-off, short term, or ongoing. Friends of MALG (who are also MALG Members) benefit from being mentioned on our website and via our other communications channels where relevant, and enhanced corporate social responsibility credentials from supporting us in bringing added value to our widespread membership network and, ultimately to the people they jointly serve.

We would like to recognise and thank our current ‘Friends of MALG’ supporters Arrow Global, CDER Group, Financial Wellness Group, Intrum, Lantern, Lester Aldridge, Lowell, and PRA Group, without whom we could not have navigated our way through 2020/21 at a time when our purpose and relevance is more apparent than ever.

If you are interested in becoming a ‘Friend of MALG’, please contact bob.winnington@malg.org.uk to arrange a call to discuss options.

MALG Virtual Summit 2.0…

Following the success of last month’s MALG Virtual Summit, we’ve taken on board all your feedback and are working on an exciting new virtual event for the Spring, which we hope will become a permanent annual fixture.

It’ll be held on 25 March 2021 (when we were originally planning to hold the physical conference – keep reading for more on that) and we can assure you that it’ll be one not to miss, with the opportunity for some proper interactive networking that MALG is well known for. More details very soon!

Save the date for the MALG Conference October 2021

If you haven’t already ‘saved the date’ for the MALG Conference 2021, which will (hopefully!) be held at No 11 Cavendish Square in London, please put Thursday 28 October in your diary and look out for further details about booking in the new year!

MALG Regional Meetings update

MALG regional group meetings are now being held via Zoom and have been very well attended. Remember, if you are a National Member, you have access to some or all of the regional groups so please take advantage of this membership benefit.

Details of upcoming regional meetings, can be found at www.malg.org.uk/events.

If you aren’t currently being invited to regional meetings and think you should be/want to be, please contact the relevant regional secretary: