If you have recently been appointed, we offer our hearty congratulations. Australian Marriage Celebrants Incorporated (AMC) will offer you a warm and friendly welcome and extend to you full support once your membership has been activated. We pride ourselves on servicing our members more effectively than any other marriage celebrant association in Australia.
Read some of our current member profiles to help you to visualise how your profile will appear when up and running.
Who is AMC (Australian Marriage Celebrants Inc)?
AMC is one of the largest marriage celebrant associations in Australia. Our 700 plus national members (in every State and Territory!) enjoy support and service seven days a week from a dedicated, caring, experienced and very professional Executive Committee.
AMC was founded over thirty years ago and was one of the first marriage celebrant associations. We are proud to say that today we are recognised as the leading marriage celebrant association in Australia.
In general, AMC members are authorised by the Attorney General’s Department. We also welcome student celebrants to join and learn whilst awaiting appointment, however they are not able to have live profiles on our website until authorised.
Over the years our association has undergone a number of structural and name changes. We became Australian Marriage Celebrants Incorporated to reflect that we are now truly a national body.
We currently have many regional branches established Australia-wide and continue to establish new branches where membership demands. Current areas are:
| State/Region | Meetings held at |
|---|---|
| QLD – Northern QLD | Townsville QLD |
| QLD – Sunshine Coast | Montville QLD |
| QLD – Brisbane | Carindale QLD |
| NSW – Northern NSW | Tweed Heads NSW |
| NSW – Mid North Coast | Taree NSW |
| NSW – Newcastle/Hunter | Cardiff NSW |
| NSW – Central Coast | Gosford NSW |
| NSW – Sydney North | Chatswood NSW |
| NSW – Sydney Northern Beaches | Brookvale NSW |
| NSW – Sydney Eastern Suburbs | Randwick NSW |
| NSW – Sydney Inner West | Five Dock NSW |
| State/Region | Meetings held at |
|---|---|
| NSW – Sydney South West | Camden NSW |
| NSW – Sydney West/Blue Mountains | Leonay NSW |
| NSW – Sydney Hills District | Rouse Hill NSW |
| NSW – Illawarra | Wolongong NSW |
| NSW – South Coast | Mollymook NSW |
| NSW – Riverina | Wagga Wagga NSW |
| NSW – Albury | Albury NSW |
| ACT/NSW Surrounds | Dickson ACT |
| TAS – Hobart | Hobart Tas |
| VIC – Melbourne | Carrum Downs VIC |
| SA – Adelaide | Hackney SA |
AMC Membership benefits…
There are many benefits to joining AMC – here are some examples:
- The Executive team offers invaluable continuous support to our members either via direct telephone or email contact;
- Additional support is readily available via our online “Member Support Centre” which is accessible by all members from every State or Territory in Australia;
- All members receive constant updates regarding the Attorney General’s Department and the Registries of Births Deaths and Marriages across all States or Territories;
- Cover for Copyright protection with Copyright Agency Australia (CAL) at a reduced rate of $48 per year. While this is not an essential condition of membership, AMC is able to provide this coverage to our members if they wish to purchase this protection. So, if you do have copyright protection through another organisation or do not wish to have copyright, simply tick the appropriate box on the application form indemnifying AMC from any possible claim instigated as a result of incidents during the period of membership;
- A Member’s Resource section in the Member’s Only area of the website where members can access a variety of information, documents and forms at any time to help them.
- Listing on the Association’s website comprising (comparable listing on other wedding sites valued at $350+);
- Choice of areas to list where you are willing to provide your services, giving you the opportunity to promote yourself in towns/cities in bordering States/Territories;
- Your profile has one main headshot;
- Text to describe your services;
- Photo gallery and text;
- Testimonial section;
- Links to your personal email, Facebook and Web page and other social media addresses;
- Up to fifty “key words” which allows you to enter various search functionality like venues you service, specific suburbs that you service, offerings you can provide, specialities that you have and any other services, such as a foreign language you may speak, etc;
- Ability to edit your profile as often as you wish. You are in charge of your listing and help is available if required;
- Regional branch meetings are held nationally during the year to assist members with support, networking, latest trends in the wedding industry, new legislation etc. They are educational, informal and fun;
- Our biennial conferences are proven to be weekends jammed packed with information on how to improve your professionalism, your business, and those all important skills of marketing yourself. Special guest speakers are organised for the Saturday, and Sunday is usually a selection of workshops with experienced facilitators. Each conference we apply to the Attorney General’s Department to be given permission for our conference to include delegates’ mandatory compulsory five hours of OPD training;
- During the non-conference years, AMC endeavours to organise through one of the approved OPD providers, a discount for members to complete their OPD;
- Mini workshops on relevant topics are also held – subject to demand;
- Regular e-Newsletters;
- A complimentary name badge with AMC logo; and the
- Opportunity to keep in touch also via the Association’s Facebook page.
Insurance
All AMC members have Public Liability and Professional Indemnity Insurance included as part of their membership entitlements.
The Master Association Policy being offered to AMC by Berkley Insurance Australia through Arthur J. Gallagher includes:
Professional Indemnity
$3,000,000 (please note 3 million!) any one Claim and $6,000,000 in the aggregate for all claims made by all financial members of Australian Marriage Celebrants Inc. during the period of cover.
Public Liability
$20,000,000 (please note 20 million!) any one Occurrence with respect to Public Liability and $20,000,000 in the aggregate with respect to Products Liability during the period of cover.
Property in Care, Custody and Control
$100,000 each and every occurrence, and in the aggregate during the period of cover.
IMPORTANT: Occurrence Based
It is important to note that whilst the AMC/Arthur J Gallagher’s offering is still classified as a “Group Policy” it is totally different to what a number of other celebrant associations offer in that it offers superior cover.
Most other “Group Polices” are underwritten by the Guild and the following table describes the differences between the AMC/Arthur J Gallagher’s offering and a “Group Policy” that is underwritten by the Guild:
Other Group policies (such as those as offered by other associations and underwritten by the Guild) only offer their policies on a “claims made and notified” basis, which means that any insurance event must be claimed and notified in the same year that the insurance was in effect, i.e. claims must be made in the same year as the insurance policy.
For Example if an insurance event occurred on 30 May it must be notified to the insurer and claimed on them by 30 June. If the claim and notification was not made until 1 July, the claim can be refused and no insurance would be paid, i.e. the claimant (in this scenario – a celebrant) would then be personally liable!
Under an “Occurrence” based policy, as long as there was insurance in place at the time of the event, then the insurance company would honour the claim. For example, if an event occurred in 2016 and there was insurance in place in 2016, but the claim was not notified until 2018, the insurance company would accept the claim as there was insurance in place when the event “occurred”.
The insurance that is being offered as part of your AMC membership fees is an Occurrence Based policy which means that as long as the insurance was in place at the time of the incident, you will be covered – even if you no longer had insurance when it was claimed!
You will also receive an individual “Certificate of Currency” showing that you are covered (if you require one).
Membership Fee
- Join AMC and receive the many benefits that our members currently experience.
- Our membership year is 1st July to 30th June.
- The full annual fees are AU$200 (incl GST).
NOTE: Copyright – if you wish to take out copyright coverage with your AMC membership, the rate is $48, from Copyright Agency Limited Australia (CAL). Simply tick the appropriate box when you complete the online membership application form.