ASA G&J members descended on Long Island New York early in July for “Jewelry Camp”. (www.jewelrycamp.org) Designed as a boot camp for antique jewelry connoisseurship, it certainly delivered. We campers ate, drank, and slept antique jewelry for three days, and loved every minute of it.

Each morning began with two general-session seminars. We were treated to exceptional seminars from the likes of Tom Burstein from Harry Winston, Inc. and Natasha Kuzmanovic, author of The Golden Age of Raymond C. Yard, while enjoying fabulous networking opportunities, thanks to the hard work and dedication of Ed Lewand, ASA, with plenty of help from his wife and son and from Gary Smith, ASA, Master Gemologist Appraiser.

As always, the event was a cornucopia of seminars—far too many to attend all of them, so hard choices had to be made! Hands-on seminars included everything from “Identifying Hallmarks” (latest research) by Danusia Niklewicz, ASA and Bill Whetstone, ISA (www.hallmarkresearch.com) and “Tool Marks of the Masters” by Gary Smith, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser, to “Antique Diamonds” by Michael Goldstein and “Limoges Enameling” by artist Larissa Podgoretz (see her work at www.studiolarissa.com and www.larissaenamels.com).

The Appraisal Roundtable was a lively discussion of current problems facing our profession. Jennifer Thornton Davis and Nancy Stacy, both ASA, Master Gemologist Appraisers participated as panelists with much to contribute.

A Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Christie Romero, jewelry historian, lecturer, and author for her tireless contributions to the world of antique and period jewelry.

Ed Lewand, ASA, recently purchased the Jewelry Camp organization from long-time owner Joyce Jonas—who in turn had acquired it from founder and jewelry collector Dr. Joseph Sataloff. Through a special arrangement, ASA G&J received financial credit for each member who attended.

Although we were all on information overload by Sunday afternoon, many of us can’t wait to go away to “Jewelry Camp” again next summer.

Teri Newman-Brosmer, ASA
Master Gemologist Appraiser

Note from the Chair

ASA Gems & Jewelry completed the GJ205 class, held at Hofstra University prior to the annual "Jewelry Camp." Instructors Gary Smith and Mona Miller-Smith instructed ten students, and two additional members were served by administering an exam to one member re-certifying, and another advancing. Jewelry Camp Director and ASA member Ed Lewand has invited ASA GJ back again next year as Jewelry Camp speakers, with a venue of introductory appraising. GJ were also the proud sponsors of 150 canvas bags that were labeled with ASA logo. These bags were by the grace of a donation made by David Bowie and the keen design eye of Teri Brossmer. GJ is excited that ASA was well received by 135 attendees, and looks forward to a stronger presence and promotion next year.

An ASA GJ thank you to Gary, Mona, Ed, David and Teri!

Jennifer Thornton-Davis, ASA
Master Gemologist Appraiser
Chair, G&J

Upcoming Events

· ASA Conference: August 3-6, 2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota

· Spring G&J Committee Meeting: Tucson, 2009

· GJ 206: at AGS Lab, just prior to 2009 JCK Show, Las Vegas NV

· GJ 205: 2009, July or August, to be determined

· ASA 2009 Conference: July 12-15, 2009 Renaissance Orlando Resort at SeaWorld - Orlando, Florida

Tech Tips

Tip #1: Searching for Comps

Commercial Databases A big part of appraising is locating sales of comparable properties—“comps”. Two on-line resources are “Art-Fact” (www.artfact.com) and Gail Levine’s “ARM” (www.auctionmarketresource.com). Now you can sign up for a day, a week, a month or a year for either/both of those sites. You can legitimately bill your client for database access fees.

You can copy and paste information from either site into a Word document and save it in your file records. (I use PAS, so I save this type of information under “Reports” with the appraisal file number plus an extension. I save material scanned for an assignment in a similar way, except as jpg’s in the PAS Photo file.)

Web, Images & Shopping However, don’t overlook the obvious, free resources—the search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc. Try using a few keywords using your favorite search engine. In Google, for example, there are alternatives to the default “Web” layout view. Along the menu tabs, selecting “Images” will give you a large selection of thumbnails which you can quickly scan for relevant-looking comps. A simple click will take you to the source website.

Clicking “Shopping” will take you to items fitting your keywords that are currently on the market. You can sort the results in various ways—I usually sort by price.

Try other “shopping” engines—Yahoo, for example, has a good shopping engine.

Auction Results For some assignments, eBay is a viable market. For best results, do an “advanced search” and limit your search to “completed listings.” Again, you have various “Sort” options. Annoyingly, unsold items will be listed as well, and their asking price will be shown in red. Actual sales prices will have the transaction price listed in green. For some appraisal assignments (especially Fair Market Value on lower-value items) it is a relatively quick way to scan through a lot of items.

Back on your regular search engines; try including the words “auction results” before your keywords. This can be very fruitful in ferreting out scarce comps. Check out what comes up under “Images” in addition to what is listed under “Web” (the default).

Of course, once you have found appropriate comps, you will need to adjust the transaction prices for date of sale and difference in value characteristics between each comp and your subject item. This is most easily done on a spreadsheet. Then, sort your adjusted transaction prices from lowest to highest and apply simple statistical techniques to help you come to your opinion of value. The spreadsheet can be copied and pasted into your appraisal report.

Tip #2: Fooling Around with Word

A lot can be learned by spending a little time now and then just exploring some of the many capabilities of Word. Here are just a few. Not in-depth—just enough to get you experimenting on your own.

Right-Click Word has “smart menus” built into the program that can be activated by right-clicking while in almost any situation. A right-click will bring up Word’s best guess of what you might want to do next.

A Right-click will bring up a menu that includes FONT, PASTE, PARAGRAPH, BULLETS & NUMBERING, HYPERLINK, LOOK UP, SYNONYM and TRANSLATE. For now, try exploring “Paragraph”. This is a function I use constantly, because it can solve a lot of text formatting headaches.

Intents & Spacing Choosing “Paragraph” from the drop-down right-click menu will bring up two tabbed menus: “Indents and Spacing” and “Line and Page Breaks”. Under “Indents and Spacing”, you can select how much space you would like between paragraphs. No more adding extra spaces between paragraphs! Choose “6” or “12” for best results. Play around with it. Try clicking on the empty space between paragraphs in this newsletter. Nothing there! The spacing is automatic! Play around with some of the other options. (You can bring up a similar menu by clicking “Format” and choosing “Paragraph” from the drop-down menu.

Line and Page Breaks My favorites on this list are “Keep Lines Together”, “Keep with Next” and “Page Break Before”. These are all great tools, especially when you near the bottom of a page and would like a paragraph not to be separated (Keep Lines Together and Keep with Next) or would like the new heading to begin on the next page (Page Break Before).

Did You Know . . . that with word processing we can forget what we learned in typing school about putting two spaces between sentences? (period – space – space) The computer automatically adds the correct spacing for whatever font we are using. Cool!

Hanging Intent Do you find yourself adding a bunch of spaces or tabs at the beginning of a line to get the text to line up correctly? No more! For this one, all you have to do is select the text you wish to format, and look at the ruler at the top of the page. (Not there? Go to your menu bar and click “View” and then check “Ruler”.) You will see two opposing arrowheads above a small box marking the beginning of the paragraph. If you click and hold on the up-pointing arrowhead and slide it to the right, all text beyond the first line will line up wherever you align the arrowhead.

Help for more information on these and much, much more remember the four-letter word “Help” on your menu bar. Click and enter keywords until Word provides the advice you need.

Have fun—a little experimenting can make your life much easier!

GJ Discussion Group

If you have never received mail from the Discussion Group (aka ListServe) please contact Betty Snyder, our G&J Liaison (see side-bar) and she will see that you are added. If you know ASA members who are not receiving the Newsletter, please let me know and have them contact Betty.

You can visit the Lyris List-serve site (enter with your list-serve password) and choose whether to receive the messages one-by-one as they come in, or once a day, or simply access the list-serve website when you want to read the threads.

Speaking of threads. Please list a subject for your email, and CHANGE the “subject” when you move on to another topic of discussion. The website group’s discussions into threads based on “subject”. This can be handy when you want to go back in time and look up a particular discussion—but difficult to find if it is saved under another subject name.

To read messages in the archive: http://list.appraisers.org/read/?forum=gj-discussion

For those of you who opt to receive the emails as they come in—it can be very stress-relieving to have a separate email folder to specifically receive them. If you use Outlook, you can simply create a new “Folder” under “Inbox” and name it something like “ASA-Discussions”. Then go to “Tools” “Rules and Alerts” to set up a rule sending all mail from the discussion group to your new folder. Other email processers probably have similar capabilities.

I have found the discussion group to be a great way to get ideas and opinions from some of the best appraisers in the country—ASA members. So I hope you will utilize the discussion list and not want to unsubscribe. But if you should, send a blank email to leave-gj-discussion-2824248Y@list.appraisers.org. Frankly, I think having a separate folder is a more satisfying option.

This information was repeated from last month, and I will try to repeat it from time-to-time. But, you might want to copy it and save it somewhere for future reference. I’ll also keep you posted on and changes resulting from the software upgrade at ASA.

Editor

G&J Committee Members

Officers

Chair: Jennifer Thornton-Davis, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Vice Chair: Gary Smith, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Secretary: Marti Hubbard, GG, ASA

Treasurer: Christine York, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Board Members

Vickie Adams, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Tracy Aros, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

David Bowie, GG, ASA

Monica Caldwell, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Teri Newman-Brossmer, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Nancy Stacy, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Thom Underwood GG, FGA, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Committee Minutes

Minutes from the Gem & Jewelry Committee meeting, American Society of Appraisers

Hofstra University July 11, 2008

The meeting opened at 6:10 P.M. The following were present:

Call to Order – Gary Smith

Roll Call – Marti Hubbard

Establish Quorum – Jennifer Thornton-Davis

Approval of minutes from Tucson, AZ G&J meeting, February 7, 2008

REPORTS

Jewelry Camp Guest – Ed Lewand ( not present)

Gary will get feed-back regarding Jewelry Camp.

Suggestions for what G&J might do for meetings in the future are:

a.) have an east coast venue and alternate the next year with a west coast venue for ASA G&J

b.) G&J could attend the conference next year in Orlando and the following year in D.C.

c.) participate in Jewelry Camp with Gary or other G&J’s doing more classes or we could do an appraisal class as part of the program

Chris found the bags provided by ASA to be awesome as did everyone else. (Thanks to Teri and to those who donated to the cause.) Chris thanked Ed for letting us come into Jewelry Camp and permitting us to advertise ASA. The courses were good. ASA appraisals were mentioned in the General Assembly as were the fact that the bags each participant received were provided by ASA. Thom felt by being at the camp we were getting exposure. We could give away free knowledge and do a class on recruiting. Within 90 days, the committee will explore the possibility of returning to Jewelry camp as an appraisal class and/or how we might represent ASA at Jewelry Camp.

Education Chair – Vickie Adams (not present)

Education Report was passed out and reviewed. (See attached)

It was suggested that those in the Master Valuer classes should continue their education with GJ 205 and GJ 206 which would result in more class participation.

Instead of Webinar, we will go with another plan and instead of GJ 205; GJ 206 will be developed online. Jennifer will get the lesson plan ready for that in two months. Theory would be online for the course and a one day class with information in the morning and an exam in the afternoon would complete the requirements.

Motion to accept the online course was made by Gary, seconded by Jennifer. Unanimous vote to accept.

Treasurer Report – Christine York

See attached reports.

Chris has donated the cost of printing the raffle tickets. All are encouraged to sell raffle tickets as this is our biggest money maker. Besides sale at the conference, local chapters could be contacted to buy.

Motion to accept the treasurer’s report by Jennifer. Seconded by Chris. Unanimous vote to accept.

PR Report – Teri-Newman Brossmer

See attached report.

Question was asked as to whether we should hold monthly phone conference calls instead of two committee meetings per year. No further discussion.

New sources for PR contacts are needed.

Membership – David Bowie (not present)

Teri reported that David’s business is busy and he contacted Teri to do membership. Most applicants are considering appraisals but are not ready at this time to pursue this course of action. Teri was able to get two names from the contacts who did attend GJ 205. It was suggested that Monica Caldwell handle membership as Teri is swamped with other PR duties. (Monica has agreed to do this.)

Credentials Verification and Compliance Report – John Abbott

John was not present.

IT Report - Thom Underwood

The ASA IT committee has been meeting every 6 weeks and the hardware is in place. There was a review of the data management. Considerations in the management were to either buy a product or contract or lease. The program is in the middle of implementation but it appears to be doing well in updating their services. No discussion of their website.

Motion to accept the IT report by Chris. Seconded by Nancy. Unanimous vote to accept.

GJ 205 and 206 Reports – Gary Smith

In GJ 205, there were 10 students. Good excitement. All want to advance and were asked questions about ASA. The power point demonstration has been updated as has USPAP.

Task Force – Mentor Program – Jennifer Thornton-Davis

There is now an ASA mentor program. Nancy has signed up as a mentor. Mentor and protégé’s will meet the day before Conference.

Motion to accept the report by Thom. Seconded by Chris. Unanimous vote to accept.

Newsletter Report – Nancy Stacy

Send Nancy materials she can use in the newsletter. She hopes to send out a newsletter each month, but needs news!

Motion to accept the report by Thom. Seconded by Chris. Unanimous vote to accept.

New Business

1. Assign board members projects to accomplish goals of the committee.

The following are to be introduced by February:

a. the immediate past chair will remain on the board and have an overlapping of the chair and vice chair duties and terms.

b. fund raising

c. course development

d. developing surveys and processing them to learn the needs of membership and encourage growth

e. mentors who have taken the latest GJ 205 class and USPAP are to assist applicants with advancement by reviewing reports

f. answer; should the Webinars communicate connoisseurship rather than appraisal theory to start membership involvement?

2. Dates for GJ 205 and GJ 206 in 2009.

Gary is checking with his schedule to determine dates for the classes. AGS is a possibility for GJ206 in Vegas with the theory being online and the gemological section at AGS.

3. New board members:

Tracy Aros Term starts 7/1/08 Term ends 6/30/11

Teri Newman-Brossmer Term starts 7/1/08 Term ends 6/30/11

4. Committee member terms passed out to the committee

5. Jennifer reported that monthly phone conference calls for the Leadership Task Force have been attended by Jennifer, Gary, Chris and Marti.

6. There was discussion about USPAP with the 15 hour course to be given every five years and the 7 hour course to be given every two years.

7. Motion to adjourn to continuous session by Nancy. Seconded by Chris. Unanimous vote.

Meeting ended at 7:00 p.m.

Minutes respectively submitted by

Marti Hubbard

ATTACHMENTS

Treasurer’s Report

PR Report – Teri Newman Brossmer – 7/11/08

The HQ PR staff continues to pitch G&J-specific topics to the staff writers and editors. We were well-represented by Nancy Stacy, Jennifer Thornton Davis, and Sue Eisen, who were all interviewed or published in trade magazines this year. As always any compositions by GJ members are welcomed and encouraged.

Issues have arisen this spring with the lead time necessary for trade magazines and journals in promoting our classes. It has become evident that we cannot rely on HQ-PR to get the information to the periodicals on time. We must include the notification to the periodicals in the responsibility of the PR committee. As soon as dates are confirmed, the information must be submitted to those trade publications with calendars so that we have plenty of exposure.

Nancy Stacy has graciously donated her skill and experience to assist me with PR. One of her first priorities is an over-haul of the web-site. Included in this is a suggestion that the URL be changed. She has also designed and published an on-line G&J Newsletter which opens up a whole new avenue for promotion.

HQ is making a concerted effort to improve brand recognition for ASA which will ultimately benefit us all. They have asked that we all make sure we are in compliance with the currently accepted guidelines for the ASA logo which may have changed since we designed our stationary or business cards, or web-sites. The monthly scheduled phone conference meetings continue to be a monologue of what has been pitched by HQ-PR and is a reminder that our own PR is incumbent on us. We are too small to garner much attention and we are dinged for any time spent by HQ-PR on our behalf. On this topic, any suggestions or input for promotion of our classes “out of the box” is greatly appreciated.

The promotional convention bags, which each attendee received at Jewelry Camp registration, came in at $5.50 each, including shipping to NY. The re-designed bookmarks and badge stickers are completed were available at Jewelry Camp and will be in the booth at Tucson.

Contact has been initiated with Dee, owner of Master Valuer Program about mutual reciprocation and promotion. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Respectively submitted,

Teri Newman Brossmer, ASA

7/11/08

February 6, 2008

Education Chair Report

Plans Completed or in process:

I. Discipline exam revised to include current processes, treatments and regulations. Final submitted to HQ.

II. Discipline exam study guide revised to conform to the revisions and submitted to HQ for distribution to candidates

III. GJ205

A. Team developed to complete the update of GJ205. Completion date scheduled for July2008

B. Contracts initiated by HQ for a new venue at Hofstra University for GJ205 scheduled prior to Jewelry Camp (Antique Jewelry & Art Learning Institute) on July 8, 9, 10 and the morning of the 11^th.

1. Dorm rooms available at a per person fee of $40; Marriot Hotel in Unionville, NY is nearby as an alternate arrangement

2. GJ benefits from the venue in that 50% of the enrollment fee paid by ASA members for Jewelry Camp will return to GJ treasury

C. Consider adaptation of GJ205 to a Webinar course to encourage growth of Gems and Jewelry discipline

IV. GJ 206

A. Contracts completed for Tuscany Suites and AGS venues in Las Vegas for the GJ206 course occurring from May 27 – 29.

B. Doug Garrod, FGA returns to provide a full day instructive seminar within the GJ206 course. Seminar on May 28^th is open to gemologists not enrolled in the course for a fee of $150.

C. MGA day scheduled on the 29^th for a fee of $250

V. Mona Smith continues instructing Finding Treasures and Fashion and Flair at university venues coordinating with ASA Education programs

Education Committee – Webinar Task Force Report

VI. Webinar Task Force developed ideas to operate previously non-functional WebEx Training Center

A. ASA Learning Center is name with new logo

B. ALACART contracted to act as Web Coordinator: Deborah Marshall@socalappraisers.org, 877-998-7258

1. Develop manuals to educate users

2. Registration and records

3. Notifications to attendees and award of continuing education units

4. Cost of $40 per hour

C. Proposed steps to give a Webinar event using WebEx

1. Budget, Coordinate, Authorize, Market, and Execute a webinar event

a. Budget plan developed by disciplines

b. Budget and Finance Committee approval of Webinar

2. Webinar Proposals must include:

a. All costs to develop the seminar

b. Fees for attendees to generate a profit

c. Proposed revenue – 40 %

d. Estimate of the time demand on ASA staff

3. Uses

a. POV and GJ205

b. On demand review if exam for POV failed

c. Instructor training to learn how to deliver courses and write exams

d. Specialized training

e. Rule and regulation posting when changes occur

f. Online board meetings

g. Virtual conferences

4. Sessions normally 30 – 90 minutes long

D. Ownership and compensation for development

1. POV courses licensed to ASA for use as the discipline desires

2. Non POV courses

a) Copyright (ownership) remains with developer

b) Webinar licensed to ASA

c) Volunteers develop the program

d) Discipline establishes the policy and pays royalties or a flat fee (after costs)

e) Discipline decides who instructors and developers are

f) Discipline decides if will enter restrictive use and instructor agreements

E. Discipline costs to use and pricing

1. Free, reasonable price and premium price

2. Cost established by discipline to cover variable costs of web administrator, developer royalties, instructor fees, marketing costs and other identifiable costs

3. One cost is the administrator cost of $200, and if recorded, the fee doubles

4. Price to member less than to non-member (increase by 25%)

5. Pricing of recorded events is the discretion of discipline

6. Sponsorships possible to offset costs

Educational Development for on site courses

VII. GJ Education Committee requests a budgetary plan for the development of future seminars

A. Suggested fees include:

1) $1,200 for seminars of approximately 7 course hours

2) $4,500 for courses of approximately 30 hours

B. Fees from ASA resources, not discipline funds

VIII. GJ Education Committee requests budget plan to develop Webinars

A. Royalties to developers

B. Costs

Respectfully Submitted,

Vickie Adams, GG, ASA
Master Gemologist Appraiser

Images

Our G&J Chair, Jennifer Thornton-Davis and a new Jewelry Camp friend

Alison LeBaron enjoys the Harry Winston-sponsored dinner, and Randy Trahan enjoys Alison (it’s OK, Nancy is behind the camera)

Carole Richbourg, Sue Whitaker and Teri-Newman Brosmer obviously having a great time!

Claire Pena, applicant to ASA and Sandra Soklin smile their approval of Jewelry Camp! Claire is a member of the ASA San Francisco (NorCal) chapter.

Christine York (center) enjoys the pearl lecture by her friend, pearl dealer Lenny Federer

Danusia Niklewicz and Bill Whetstone present their latest research. Who knew that the placement of French hallmarks can sometimes tell weight or length???

Bill Whetstone looks up a fine point of hallmarking for Jennifer Thornton-Davis

Michael Holtzman, right. and Charles Goldstone apply their skills in identifying hallmarks. Michael, a long-time ASA candidate, has pledged to find the time to advance to ASA and Master Gemologist Appraiser. Soon. J