Kathy is mostly correct on the origins of ILCA and IBLCE. To clarify even further: both ILCA and IBLCE had their roots in 1982 when La Leche League formed the Lactation Consultant Department and named JoAnne Scott as director. I became her assistant shortly afterward. We spent thousands of hours over the next two 1/2 years (late 1982-early 85) researching credentialing, exams, educational programs, attending meetings on professional regulation, etc. The organizational meeting of IBLCE held in Washington DC in March 1985 culminated nearly three years of research and preliminary organizational work. I still have the first draft of IBLCE's bylaws, too and a videotape of silly exam questions made up by Maureen Minchin, Debi Bocar, Marsha Walker, Jean Driscoll, and myself that we presented to the assembled group.

Over lunch one day in 1984 while JoAnne and I were working on the administrative structure of the new certifying body, the idea of forming a LC association emerged. I called Cindy Butler in Canada to see if she would get a new group started. When she declined (for personal reasons), we asked Faith Bedford who agreed. The name ILCA was picked. Faith contacted Kathy Auerbach and they assembled the first board of directors from the LC Dept. mailing list. I was asked to be secretary because I had a computer (a Commodore 64 - how far we've come!). Kathy designed, wrote and editied the first newsletter of ILCA, called "Consultants Corner" which hit the streets June 1985 and was the precursor to the JHL. From its very beginnings, Kathy has been the driving force behind the JHL.

The official first organizational meeting of ILCA was held in July 1985 at the LLLI Conference in Washington DC, as Kathy described. I still have the first draft of the bylaws and minutes of that meeting on an old floppy disk in the attic. Incidentally, as first ILCA secretary and designer of the membership database, I assigned the first several hundred membership numbers. 

Enough nostalgia for today.

Linda Smith, Dayton OH