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:

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, web page and other social media platform 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 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 is usually a selection of workshops with experienced facilitators.
• Mini workshops on relevant topics are also held – subject to demand;
• Regular e-Newsletters;
• A complimentary name badge with AMC logo, pen, mouse pad and USB with resources on hand.
• Opportunity to keep in touch also via the Association’s Facebook page, private Facebook group and Members support on the website members section for members.
• Monthly Education sessions online with presenters both members and external speakers with interesting topics.

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.

Copyright: What’s the difference between Copyright
Licence and Copyright Insurance?

Many people are unsure of the difference between Copyright Insurance and a Copyright License. To help distinguish between them we should first look at and understand Copyright in more depth.
Copyright is a legal right created by law that grants the creator of original work exclusive rights over its use and distribution. Copyright is a form of intellectual property that protects the original expression of ideas. It enables creators to manage how their content is used.
Copyright is applicable to certain forms of creative work. Copyright protects the original way in which facts or ideas are expressed; for example in writing, source code, a drawing, painting or photograph.
Copyright covers materials created both in hard copy and electronic format.
The Copyright Act 1968 divides copyright into: literary works, such as books, articles, scripts and poems; artistic works, such as photographs, paintings, sculptures, maps and plans; dramatic and musical works; subject matter other than works, including films, broadcasts, sound recordings and multimedia.
The copyright system provides an environment that fosters the creation of new content for the benefit of society as a whole by providing an incentive for people to create and invest in new content, by enabling them to set the terms on which others can use their content. These terms can (though may
not) include payment, which provides a reward to those who have created content which others find valuable.
There is no registration system for copyright under Australian law. Copyright protection is automatic, and exists as soon as an idea has been written down or recorded in some other way. There is no need to register the material. The use of the symbol © means the material is protected by copyright.
To achieve its objectives, the copyright system treats different uses of content in different ways. Some uses require permission, enabling the copyright owner to set the terms of use. Some uses do not require permission or payment. Other uses do not require permission but do require fair payment.
A copyright infringement will occur if you use a substantial part of copyright material without the permission of the copyright owner. A ‘substantial part’ is not defined by the Copyright Act. However, the courts consider that the quality of what is copied, not the quantity, is the deciding factor. A copyright owner is entitled to full credit for the use of the material covered by the copyright and may also be entitled to payment for the use of work.
An infringement of copyright can result in a person being prosecuted for an infringement and maybe found liable for damages to the Copyright owner. This is where copyright insurance comes into play, as insurance is available for inadvertent infringement and an insurance company will indemnify the
insured against any claim made. It is very important to note the use of the word “inadvertent.”
Copyright licenses in Australia are issued by the Copyright Agency Limited Australia (CAL). CAL is a not for-profit, member based organisation that has been appointed by the Australian government to manage collection and distribution of statutory licences that allow use of text and images. Businesses
demonstrating best practice governance, purchase commercial copyright licences from CAL, and CAL collects fees and distributes royalties to creator-members for the reuse of text and images.
CAL provides a range of copyright licences to cover the use of copyright material for specific business needs. Licensing revenue is redistributed to its members, the creators, ensuring the Australian creative economy remains strong. In business, it’s easy to breach copyright laws by inadvertently
copying and sharing content without permission. Most literary works are covered by copyright. If you copy works that were created by others, you usually need permission from the copyright owner to do so. CAL’s Copyright Licence for Businesses gives businesses the freedom to legally copy and share
third party literary content. As CAL pay royalties to creators whose works are reused, the creation of new content will be fostered which will provide benefit to all in the future.
The purchase of a CAL licence ensures that the creators of copyright material are given proper acknowledgement, recognition and remuneration. AMC has secured the Copyright Agency’s Copyright Licence for Celebrant Associations to help protect our Members from the risk of copyright infringement – it works on an annual “pay per subscription” basis and all AMC Members have the
option to purchase this CAL licence when they first join AMC or renew their membership each year.
The Copyright Licence with CAL provides AMC Members who purchase the License the following benefits:
 A cost-effective way of managing copyright responsibilities and removing the need to ask for permission each time you want to use copyright materials; AMC members can source material from anywhere: web, books, journals, magazines etc.;
 Convenient access to millions of copyright materials like books, journals & newspapers by way of being able to copy, download, store, scan or distribute without needing to seek individual permissions each and every time;
 The ability to fill in the gaps in copyright compliance around your use of materials provided under subscriptions and other materials your business uses;
 A licence that removes the risk of copyright infringement;
 The licence structure also has an indemnity so if a member was sued for breach of copyright,
CAL would indemnify them against any and all damages; and
 This licence covers a worldwide distribution and it not restricted solely to Australian works.
The licence provides the following permissions:
 Photocopying (up to 10% or one chapter of any book, journal or magazine);
 Supply of hardcopies to clients;
 Scanning and electronic storage (i.e. on hard drive);
 Displaying material on PowerPoint etc. download;
 Download and store material from the Internet such as poetry and prose;
 Post material on the password-protected AMC website;
 Access and download material from the AMC password-protected website;
 It is permissible to scan and email material to another AMC member or upload to the AMC website. In summary, a Copyright Licence provides the freedom to legally copy and share third party literary content and ensures that the creators of copyright material are given proper acknowledgement,
recognition and remuneration where applicable; whereas Copyright Insurance provides comfort and peace of mind that should you inadvertently breach copyright laws you will be indemnified against any claim arising.

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, with AMC 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.

Interested in becoming an AMC member?