MRBA Matters Spring/Summer 2014 June 2014 | Page 3

“It’s important to support the industry’s own charity.”
charity, it is there to help take the financial
and emotional pressure off colleagues in
financial distress.
“The MRBA helps
take the financial and
emotional pressure off
colleagues in financial
distress,” says Kudos’
MD and IQCS’ Vice
Chairman, Chris Smith.

MM spoke to Chris Smith to find out
more about these two organisations’
support for the MRBA.
I first heard about the MRBA back in the
early 90s when one of my supervisors
was diagnosed with a slipped disc and
needed an operation. A colleague told
me about the MRBA, so I got in touch
with the association and managed to get
some money to help fund the cost of an
orthopaedic bed to speed up his recovery
and return to work.
When interviewers aren’t working they
aren’t earning. It’s a double concern. They
are worried about money and also worried
about getting back to work. So what’s great
about the MRBA is that as the industry’s

Caseload
by Marian Stringer

“From November 2013
to March 2014 we’ve
given away a total of
£12,266.69,” says National
Cases Manager Marian
Stringer.

Why did you want Kudos Research and
the IQCS to become Corporate Patrons?
At Kudos, we are a data collection
agency and rely heavily on our freelance
interviewers. They are the ‘lifeblood’ of our
business. So anything that we can do to
help the well-being of these important
people in the market research community,
the better.
IQCS’ remit is
to promote the
quality standards
of interviewers
through the recruitment and training of
interviewers, as well as the administration
and management of surveys. As the oldest
established benchmarking organisation in
the country, serving the interests of the
interviewers’ function is always at the top
of our agenda, so we’ve aligned ourselves
with the MRBA to support them. The fact
that Gill Wareing has been involved with
both our organisations has been a great
boost too.
Unfortunately some of these recent cases have
been more severe in their circumstances. We
had a very sad case of the sudden death of a
young mothe r leaving two children under the
age of two. We have also been working with
the family of a teenager who was seriously
injured in a car accident, was hospitalised for
weeks and will be off school for months. And
we are helping a father suddenly left alone to
cope with a severely handicapped child.

In the past few years we have given the
MRBA a platform at our AGM so they can
explain what they do to our membership
and we also shared a stand at the last
London ESOMAR Congress. Now, as a
Corporate Patron we are lending financial
support too.
What more do you think can be done
to generate more awareness for the
MRBA?
The MRBA online auction does a great
deal to generate publicity but it would be
good to see the field community organise
an event to increase awareness, as well as
help raise additional funds.
Also, I understand there is an MRBA badge
that all Corporate Patrons and Friends can
put up on their websites to show that they
are MRBA supporters. The IQCS will be
adding a link along with some explanatory
information about the MRBA to promote
the charity. We will also encourage
IQCS membership to do what they can
to promote the MRBA, such as adding
links on their websites.
“Just to say thank you for all the help the MRBA
gave us both emotionally and physically in our
recent loss. Thanks to you, we are now out of
the red and starting to get our life back together
again. Thank you.”

What your donations mean
During this period we handled 124 cases and
have given out £3,000 in interest-free loans
and £9,266.69 in grants. Twenty-one of these
cases are new ones.

A researcher who lost her daughter in a
tragic accident was unable to work during
this traumatic time and ran into debt. The
MRBA helped financially until the researcher
returned to work.

“It’s nice to know the industry is prepared to help those of us who need it when
there is no place else to turn.”
A face-to-face interviewer for over 25 years,
‘Moira’ (not her real name), contacted the
MRBA a few years ago after she had a nasty
fall and broke her ankle. She needed surgery
to install a metal plate and was in hospital for
five days. A widow living alone, Moira wasn’t
able to walk so couldn’t work and the bills
were piling up. She applied for benefits only
to be told she didn’t qualify because the
monthly income from her husband’s pension
was over a certain amount; but it didn’t cover
all of her essential bills.
“About four months later when I was back
on my feet,” explains Moira, “the benefits

people finally got back to me and sent me a
medical questionnaire twice, asking me
to come in for an
assessment, but I
couldn’t travel all
that way.” Meanwhile, thanks to the
encouragement from
several colleagues,
Moira got in touch
with the MRBA. “I
was worried that I
“I’m great now, back to
wouldn’t be eligible
work and really busy, all
for help because I
thanks to the MRBA”,
hadn’t paid into it.
says ‘Moira’.

“My Regional Manager was lovely and so
kind and assured me I didn’t need to be
paying into the MRBA to apply for help.
“I couldn’t believe it when I got a cheque
from the MRBA for £500 and used it to help
pay my bills. Then before Christmas I got
another cheque for £70.
“I am so very grateful to everyone at the
MRBA and so impressed that the industry
I’ve worked in all of these years is there to
help people like me.”