No matter how hard we try to be "clean," sometimes we get sucker-punched.
I have--for years--used a speaking contract that MAKES QUITE CLEAR that I
do not accept monies from formula companies (actually it says non WHO Code
compliant companies, which is a bit broader than just the formula makers).

When people sign and return my contract, I conclude that they are ABIDING
by the clauses it contains, just as I must.

Recently, however, I went to a conference (no, they did NOT pick me up at
the airport!) and learned TO MY HORROR that the program booklet AND the
hallways were plastered with big announcements about my all-day workshop
being sponsored by two proprietary companies, ONE of them a FORMULA maker!

Well, it was too late to pick up my slides and go home, so I went ahead
with the program, BUT I wrote a disclaimer statement and READ IT SLOWLY AND
CAREFULLY before I began the program.  At least 3 of the more than 100
people made comments (supportive of my stance, and the embarrassing nature
of putting me in such a situation) on their evaluation forms.  I would like
to think that others who did not write at least had their consciences
raised as a result of my statement.

I never received an apology from the organizers (or any kind of
acknowledgement of my letter in which I noted what I had to do and why),
but I would like to think that perhaps they will at least do future
speakers the courtesy of ASKING them about this in advance.

For those of you attending the March of Dimes program in Chicago, it has
for years been HEAVILY subsidized by one or more formula companies.
However, under my name and Dr. McKenna's name (this year) is a statement
making clear that we are NOT being sponsored by Mead-Johnson (or whatever
the formula company is that does this sort of thing year after year).  This
sensitivity was the result of years of hard behind-the-scenes slogging of
Angela Jacobi, an LC, and a couple of other people on their planning
committee.  It is now pretty much routine.

There are ways to handle such things. I just resent not being
informed-particularly in advance, and in direct refutation of my speaking
contract and its related clauses.

PS The conference in question did not add salt to the wound by using a
formula company check to pay my honorarium, but knowing they got some of
that money from such a place really griped me! Which is why I said what I
did publicly and why I felt it necessary to call this practice into
question after the conference was concluded.

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"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask]
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