The world of turbulence continues unabated with the Lords vote on Brexit and the latest Budget dominating domestic news. I was in the Houses of Parliament at the time of the Lords debate to celebrate the launch of the Christian’s Against Poverty Life Skills initiative. The focus is on supporting people to develop practical skills and to discover new ways to live for a brighter future. We can all develop these skills no matter what our circumstances. I am developing a flair for cooking meals from scratch; fresh produce which is healthier and saves money too. I’m hardly Jamie Oliver or James Martin, but I’m having a go!
Unveiling the new MALG brand
As I’ve mentioned in recent correspondence, we’ve been working hard at MALG in 2017 on the development of a new look and new focus for our 30thanniversary year.
We can now unveil the new MALG brand, with huge thanks to the Marketing team at Marston Holdings for the weeks of pro bono work that went into helping us develop an updated look and feel:
Within the next few weeks, all existing and new MALG members will be sent a high resolution version of the logo with a ‘member’ strapline along with guidelines for how this can/should be used on your websites, stationery etc. We hope that you are keen to use it as a ‘stamp of approval’ that demonstrates your commitment to our mission of ‘working together to improve the lives of people in debt’.
Our new branding will also feature on our new website and will be updated on our social media channels when the website developments are launched next month.
MALG Membership
As part of our renewed focus for 2017, we are in the process of developing MALG’s membership packages. Our new membership strategy is designed to formalise and widen MALG membership to include all of those involved in debt and money advice. The Membership packages available at present are as follows:
- Strategic Membership – for national public/third sector organisations and industry bodies including debt advice organisations, credit reference agencies, trade associations and regulators. This membership formalises the previous membership arrangements with these organisations and bodies and details will be sent to existing members shortly.
- National Business Membership – for companies with a national reach including Banks and specialist companies such as debt collection agencies, enforcement agents, commercial advice providers, creditors and technology providers
- Regional Membership – for local arms of money/debt advice organisations and regional offices of strategic/business members. This Membership is available as previously through the six Regional Forums we have in place.
If you are interested in finding out more about the Membership options, please let me know. Details of our membership benefits/packages and a full list of all our existing members with their logos and web links will feature on our new website.
The new National Business Membership is proving to be a popular addition to our membership options and we are also looking at further additions in the next few months. I will keep you advised on these developments and please don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like any further information.
MALG Members Meeting 6 April 2017
We recently announced a change of date for our next MALG Members meeting from 23 March to Thursday 6 April. A huge thank you to Bond Dickinson LLP for offering to host the meeting at their offices at 4 More London, Riverside, London SE1 2AU. Timings are likely to be 10.30am – 3pm and we have some exciting speakers lined up which we will be announcing soon. Watch this space for full details. I look forward to seeing many of you there and hope it is as well attended, interactive and engaging as January’s meeting!