ALMA was a twinkle in the eye of a handful of lesbian doctors in the late 1990s.

Founding members, including Carol Booth, Alison Rutherford, and Deb Hamilton, came up with the audacious plan of holding a conference for lesbian doctors and medical students.

The first ALMA conference was held in 1999 at Lake Macquarie NSW, and attracted a startling 32 lesbian doctors, medical students and partners.

So inspired were the participants, that they decided to create a national lesbian medical organisation - and ALMA was born.

Since then, she has gone from strength to strength. Numerous women have joined and volunteered.

ALMA welcomes women to the ninth annual conference in 2007.

ALMA funds original research projects in the lesbian health field, and is offering its combined research grant with ACON again this year.