Membership Terms and Conditions

1. Who we are

BMNANZ is an Australian public company limited by guarantee. We have been a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission since 2019, as a Health Promotion Charity, and we are endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient. We are not registered for GST.

Our purpose is to advance breastfeeding and lactation medicine through education, collaboration, advocacy, and professional leadership, supporting clinicians to deliver evidence-based care to families. We are a not-for-profit network of doctors and dentists in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. We do not provide health services or treat patients.

Our Board of Directors and our committees are volunteers, supported by a small administration team.

2. Agreeing to these terms and the Constitution

When you tick the declaration on the membership application form, or renew your membership, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy.

You also agree to become a member of the company and to be bound by its Constitution. The Constitution sets out how BMNANZ is run, including the classes of membership, members' rights at general meetings, and how membership begins and ends.

The Constitution is available from our Constitution page, or on request by emailing info@breastfeedingmed.com.au or using our contact page. Please read it before you apply.

3. Who can be a member

Professional Member

Professional membership is open to doctors and dentists: general practitioners, non-GP specialists, doctors in training and dentists. To be a Professional Member you must hold a degree in medicine or dentistry and current registration with Ahpra (Australia), the Medical Council of New Zealand or the Dental Council of New Zealand.

Student Member

Student membership is open to students enrolled in a medical or dental school. Student Members are not listed in the Practitioner Directory.

Your rights as a member

Your rights as a member, including whether you may vote at general meetings and stand for the Board, are set by the Constitution for your class of membership. Membership is personal to you and cannot be transferred to anyone else.

4. Applying for membership

You apply using the online form on our website. You must give information that is true, complete and current. We may ask you for more information or evidence, for example proof of enrolment for a Student Member.

The BMNANZ Board decides every application. The Board checks a Professional applicant's registration on the public register of Ahpra or the relevant New Zealand council. Applications are decided by people, not by automated systems.

The Board may approve or decline an application at its discretion, acting in good faith. We will tell you the outcome by email. If your application is declined, any fee you have paid is refunded in full.

Your membership starts when the Board approves your application. If you opted in to the Practitioner Directory, your listing is published when your application is approved. From 1 July 2027, a Professional Member's benefits, including a directory listing and member rates, depend on the annual fee being paid.

5. Keeping your registration and eligibility current

Professional Members must hold current registration for the whole time they are a member. You must tell us promptly, and in any case within 14 days, if your registration is suspended or cancelled, if conditions, undertakings or restrictions that affect your clinical practice are placed on it, or if you stop being registered for any reason, including retirement.

You must also tell us if your eligibility changes in any other way, for example if you are a Student Member and you leave or finish your course.

If you no longer meet the eligibility criteria for your class of membership, the Board may cancel your membership under the Constitution (see section 19). We may remove your Practitioner Directory listing straight away while the Board considers the matter.

A Student Member's membership continues until the end of the membership year in which they finish or leave their course. You may then apply to become a Professional Member once you are registered.

6. Membership benefits

Current members receive the benefits described for their category on our website. At present these are:

• a listing in the Practitioner Directory, for Professional Members who choose to be listed;
• member rates for BMNANZ workshops, conferences and other educational events, and discounts on BMNANZ courses where we offer them;
• a network of peers across Australia and New Zealand, including state-based networks where they exist; and
• the opportunity to join committees and to stand for the Board, subject to the Constitution and any eligibility rules.

Benefits are not fixed. We may add to, change or withdraw them as our activities develop. Where a change is significant, we will tell members by email before it takes effect.

Membership is not a qualification, credential, accreditation or endorsement. It does not certify your skill or experience in breastfeeding medicine. You remain responsible for your own clinical practice, your professional indemnity insurance and compliance with your registration requirements.

7. Fees

• Membership is free for all members until 30 June 2027.
• From 1 July 2027, Professional Members pay an annual fee of A$95. Student membership stays free.
• All fees are in Australian dollars, including for members in New Zealand. Your bank may charge you for a currency conversion or an international transfer. We do not control those charges.
• The membership year runs from 1 July to 30 June. The fee is for the whole membership year. We do not reduce it for part of a year unless our website says otherwise when you join.
• BMNANZ is not registered for GST. No GST is charged on fees, and our receipts are not tax invoices. Whether a fee is tax deductible for you is a matter for you and your tax adviser.

How to pay

At present, fees are paid by bank transfer. We send each member a fee notice with their own payment reference. Please use that reference so we can match your payment. A fee is paid when it reaches our account.

We plan to accept card payments through Stripe, a payment provider. When we do, Stripe's terms will apply to card payments, and we will never hold your card number. We will update these terms at that time.

Changes to fees

The Board reviews fees from time to time. If your fee is to change, we will tell you by email at least 30 days before the start of the membership year in which the new fee applies.

8. Renewal and lapsing

We do not renew memberships automatically, and we never charge you without your action. We tell you by email when your fee is due, and remind you if it is unpaid. Paying on time is your responsibility.

If your fee is still unpaid 90 days after it fell due, we may record your membership as lapsed. Your benefits, including any Practitioner Directory listing, end when your membership lapses. You can apply again at any time.

The Constitution also says when membership ends. If the Constitution sets a different period for unpaid fees, that period applies.

9. Refunds

If your application is declined, we refund any fee you have paid in full.

Otherwise, fees are not refunded when you resign or your membership is cancelled or lapses, except where section 20 (changes to these terms) applies, or where the Australian Consumer Law, the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 (NZ) or another law requires a refund.

If we have charged you in error, or a payment is duplicated, we refund the overpayment.

10. Your Practitioner Directory listing

Professional Members may choose to be listed in our Practitioner Directory, which families and referrers use to find a doctor with expertise in breastfeeding medicine. Only the details you give in the sections of the form marked public if listed are published, and only after the Board approves your application.

You must make sure your listing is accurate, not misleading and kept up to date, including your practice locations, contact details, the services you list and the languages you consult in. Use the update a listing form on our website to tell us about changes.

Your listing is advertising of a regulated health service. You are responsible for making sure it complies with the advertising requirements that apply to you: in Australia, section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law and Ahpra's advertising guidelines; in New Zealand, the advertising standards of the Medical Council of New Zealand or the Dental Council of New Zealand, and the Fair Trading Act 1986. Among other things, you must not include testimonials, false or misleading claims, or titles you are not entitled to use.

The Board may edit a listing for format, consistency or accuracy, may decline to publish a listing, and may remove a listing at any time, including if it reasonably believes the listing breaches these rules, your registration changes, or we receive a complaint about it. We will tell you if we edit, decline or remove your listing.

Your listing ends when your membership ends or lapses. We do not guarantee how prominently your listing appears, that the map position of a practice is exact, or that the directory is available at all times.

Listing in the directory is not an endorsement by BMNANZ. You must not describe your listing or your membership as an endorsement, accreditation or referral by BMNANZ.

11. Member conduct

Members are expected to uphold BMNANZ's purpose and values, to act honestly and in good faith in their dealings with BMNANZ, and to treat other members, the Board, committee members, our administration team and the community with respect and professionalism.

Professional Members are expected to follow the Professional Member Code of Conduct, which is published on our Code of conduct page. Members who join a committee agree to the Committee Member Code of Conduct, and directors agree to the Directors' Code of Conduct.

Conduct that breaches these terms, the Constitution or the Professional Member Code of Conduct, that misuses member benefits, or that may bring BMNANZ into disrepute may lead to the Board cancelling your membership under the Constitution (see section 19).

12. Use of the BMNANZ name and logo

The BMNANZ name and logo belong to BMNANZ. You may state in plain words that you are a Professional Member or a Student Member of BMNANZ. Any other use of our name, and any use of our logo, for example on your website, signage, stationery or promotional material, must be approved in writing by the Board before you use it.

An approval may be given on conditions and may be withdrawn. You must not use our name or logo in a way that suggests BMNANZ endorses you, your practice or your services, or that you speak for BMNANZ. You must stop using them when your membership ends, or when we ask you to.

13. State-based networks

Some states and territories have a BMNANZ network led by a member. If you ask on your application form, or later, to be connected to your state-based network, we pass your name and contact details to that network's lead so they can contact you. The network lead uses your details only for the network's activities.

State-based networks are informal groups of members. They do not speak for BMNANZ unless the Board authorises them to.

14. Educational events, courses and materials

Current members receive member rates for BMNANZ workshops, conferences and other educational events, and for any courses or educational materials we offer to members at a discount. The member rate applies if your membership is current when you book. If your membership lapses or ends before the event or course, we may ask you to renew or to pay the difference.

Registrations and purchases, including on third-party event platforms, are governed by our Website Terms and Conditions and by the terms shown when you register or buy. Those terms cover prices, refunds and cancellations, changes to events, recordings and photography, continuing professional development, and how educational content may be used.

15. Use of content and resources

We may make publications, newsletters, presentations, recordings, slides, course materials, member-only web pages, templates and other content available to members (member content), now or in future. Member content, and the intellectual property in it, belongs to BMNANZ or its licensors.

We grant you a personal, non-transferable licence to use member content for your own professional development and practice while you are a member. You must not copy, share, publish, sell, lend, record, upload, adapt or redistribute member content, or share a login or access link, without our written consent. Reasonable quotation with attribution, and any use the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) allows, is permitted.

Member content is for health professionals. It is educational, is not clinical advice for a particular patient, and does not replace your professional judgement or current guidelines. Your access to member content ends when your membership ends, unless the terms of a purchase say otherwise.

16. Communications and notices

You agree that we may give you notices, including notices of general meetings and other documents under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), by email to the address you have given us (section 249J of the Act). You must keep that address current. A notice sent by email is taken to be received on the day it is sent. The Corporations Act gives you the right to ask for paper copies of some meeting documents; email us if you want them.

While you are a member we send you membership and governance emails: fee notices, receipts, notices of general meetings, candidate lists for Board elections, requests to check your details, and similar messages. These are about your membership and carry no marketing, so they cannot be unsubscribed from while you are a member.

As a member you receive our newsletter, unless you answer “No” to the newsletter question on your membership application. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in each newsletter; unsubscribing does not affect your membership. Anyone else can subscribe through our website. We comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 (NZ).

You can contact us by emailing info@breastfeedingmed.com.au or through our contact page.

17. Privacy

We handle your personal information in line with our Privacy Policy and the collection notice shown on the application form. In short, we use your information to assess your application, run your membership, publish your directory listing if you opt in, and send you the notices described in section 16. Our forms and records are hosted by providers in the United States and elsewhere, as the Privacy Policy explains.

You can ask to see or correct the information we hold about you at any time by emailing info@breastfeedingmed.com.au.

18. Liability

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy under the Australian Consumer Law or, for members in New Zealand, under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or the Fair Trading Act 1986, or any other right that cannot lawfully be excluded.

To the extent the law permits: we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of income or loss of opportunity arising from your membership; and where the law allows us to limit our liability for failing to comply with a consumer guarantee about services, our liability is limited to supplying the services again or paying the cost of having them supplied again.

Subject to the paragraphs above, our total liability to you in connection with your membership in any membership year is limited to the membership fees you paid for that year or A$95, whichever is greater.

Our directors, committee members, network leads and volunteers act on behalf of BMNANZ. To the extent the law allows, any claim about your membership is against BMNANZ and not against them personally.

Membership does not create a partnership, agency, employment or joint venture between you and BMNANZ. BMNANZ does not supervise, and is not responsible for, your clinical practice.

19. Resigning and ending membership

Resigning

You may resign at any time by emailing info@breastfeedingmed.com.au or through our contact page, or in any other way the Constitution allows. Your resignation takes effect when we receive it, unless the Constitution says otherwise. Your benefits, including any Practitioner Directory listing, end then. Fees already paid are not refunded except as section 9 says.

When membership ends

Your membership also ends if you die, if your membership lapses for non-payment (section 8), or if the Board cancels it under the Constitution.

Cancellation by the Board

The Board may cancel a membership under the Constitution, including where you no longer meet the eligibility criteria, you have seriously or repeatedly breached these terms or the Professional Member Code of Conduct, or your conduct is harmful to BMNANZ or its purpose.

Before the Board cancels your membership for breach or conduct, we will tell you in writing what the concern is, give you at least 14 days to respond in writing, and consider your response. The Board will decide in good faith and tell you the decision and the reasons in writing. Where the Constitution gives you further rights, such as a right to be heard at a meeting or to appeal, those rights apply.

While the Board considers a matter, we may suspend your Practitioner Directory listing or other benefits where we reasonably consider it necessary to protect the public, members or BMNANZ.

Our Privacy Policy explains how long we keep former members' records.

20. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms from time to time, for example when fees change, when card payments start, or when we begin to sell courses or materials. The current version is always on our website with the date it was last updated.

Before a significant change takes effect, we will tell members by email at least 30 days in advance. If a significant change adversely affects you and you resign within 30 days after we notify you, we will refund the unused part of any fee you have paid for the current membership year, calculated by the whole months remaining.

Changes do not affect rights or obligations that arose before the change took effect.

21. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Australian Capital Territory and the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia that apply there. You and we submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Australian Capital Territory and of the courts that hear appeals from them.

If you live in New Zealand, nothing in this section takes away any right you have under New Zealand consumer law, or your right to bring a claim in a New Zealand court or tribunal.

22. Contact

Questions about your membership or these terms: email info@breastfeedingmed.com.au or use our contact page.