I want to preface my remarks (on the WHO code issues related to the ILCA
conf) by saying that I don't rent or sell products any more just so I can
say what I want to about product ethics.  I also want to say that while I am
a member of ILCA, I am not on the board and don't have any official capacity
in the organization.

Those clarifications done, I want to say that it looks like it has been
difficult for ILCA to survive for several reasons.  People want ILCA to do a
lot of important work, but they don't want to pay for an ICLA membership,
attend the annual conference, or join any committees and work for the
profession. I appreciate that as LCs we don't make a lot of money.  As a
person who works outside of any institution, I've always had to pay my own
way to these events, and I appreciate that it isn't cheap.  The conf. in
Mexico almost bankrupted the organization due to poor support from the
members.  This kind of thing is bound to put a strain on the current board
who would, I'm sure, hate to be remembered as the bunch who let the
organization die. I'd rather not have Code violators at the conf. even if
while they are they they are supposed to be behaving themselves, but you
can't have it both ways.  Pay your memberships, join committees, talk your
colleagues into joining.  Then maybe we won't need the exhibitors that
people object to.

Personally, I like to be able to go to a conf. and take a look at the
equipment.  I never just take a manufacturer at their word (in other words,
I'd like to see some non-company sponsored research on equipment) but I work
with train wreck disaster cases and I often use equipment.  While I don't
sell it, I like to know what it looks like, like to handle it to see how it
works, and where else am I going to do that if not at my professional
conferences? We're not talking a baby fair here.  There's no direct to
consumer stuff going on.  Frankly, with as many of us dealing with babies
who are already bottle feeding when we get them, I'm appalled at how little
the average LC knows about bottle teats and how they work.  I wish they had
bottle teats and pacifiers at the booths so LCs could mess with them. In
fact, I wish companies would send their engineers rather than their sales
reps so I could tell them what I'd like them to make.

 It's like those big symposia put on by formula mfgs:  If you go, just don't
take their freebees or eat their lunch. If you want to pay $2 for the bumper
sticker so IBFAN doesn't have to absorb the cost, I'm sure they'd be
delighted with your donation.  And one suggestion for ILCA might be that
they could include some speakers who have done some independent research on
the equipment in the exhibit hall to balance the (obviously) promotional
nature of those exhibits.

Barbara Wilson-Clay BSEd, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
http://www.lactnews.com

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