Welcome back, Katharine. You may have let things lie a little too long in one respect - keeping the alphabet soup straight! ILCA is the International Lactation Consultant Association, to which anyone at all may belong. All who wish to subscribe to JHL must join, for example. Having a current IBCLC credential is not a requirement, nor is it ILCA that confers this credential. IBLCE is the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners, the body that writes the exam, administers it, corrects it, and confers the credential IBCLC on those who have passed it. While I may be mistaken, I am guessing it was not ILCA's attorney, but IBLCE's who advised you that the letters IBCLC refer only to currently certified persons under the rules of IBLCE. ILCA would be unlikely to care enough to use whatever legal resources at its disposal, to follow up something that is IBLCE's turf. IBLCE, on the other hand, is very much concerned with keeping its credential in the possession of those defined as being entitled to it. ILCA's officers are elected by membership vote, and it is an international organization whose mission is "To advance the profession of lactation consulting worldwide through leadership, advocacy, professional development, and research." It does not function the way a union does, because it operates in so many jurisdictions with different legal sanctions concerning practice. It does have NGO status with UNICEF and WHO, and several other fora. There is an ILCA representative at IBLCE. I refer to ILCAs website for more information, www.ilca.org IBLCE's mission is "To certify, by means of an independent internationally recognized examination, individuals who demonstrate their competence to practice as IBCLCs, RLCs, providing quality care to babies and mothers worldwide." For more on that, see www.iblce.org . I see that they are calling for nominations for three elected positions, though it is the board itself that elects its members from those nominated (presumably by IBCLCs who have an opinion on this). IBLCE is not a board of representatives chosen by 'members'. The composition of the board is described at the website, listing the organizations who each have a permanent representative, and then there are elected members who are not sent by an organization, as described above. I am not commenting on the other content of Katharine's post, only pointing out the differences between ILCA and IBLCE. Cheers Rachel Myr (IBCLC, midwife, (and nurse, actually), and mother-to-mother BF counselor with Ammehjelpen, and BA, and BSN, but no longer RN, as I no longer live in the US and have let my nursing license lapse, though I am licensed to practice nursing in Norway) Kristiansand, Norway *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html