For the first time in a long time, we have three G&J members running for two places on the G&J Committee. And, we have three members running for International Secretary/Treasurer. Since this puts the winner on track to become International President, it is an important position. If you have not yet voted, please read the candidates’ qualifications and exercise your right to vote! http://www.appraisers.org/ForMembers/MemberNews/2010Elections.aspx

To vote, sign on to
https://eBallot.votenet.com/appraisers
using your User Name and Password for the “For Members” section of the ASA Web site. If you have forgotten your User Name or Password, contact Member Services at (800) 272-8258 (in the United States and Canada) or (703) 478-2228.

Conference in Las Vegas

Our G&J Conference in July is packed with valuable presentations to help us improve our appraisals, improve our businesses, hone our gemological skills and understand markets. Presentations include a half-day on Writing the Narrative Appraisal and a half-day diamond update from AGS, plus more

Upcoming Events

· JCK Show, Las Vegas, June 4-7

· AGA Composite Ruby Workshop, June 4, 2:00, Platinum Hotel

· GJ 206: at AGS Lab, Las Vegas NV, June 7-9

· GJ 205: July 13-15, Iona College, NY preceding Jewelry Camp

· Jewelry Camp, Iona College, NY July 16-18

· G&J Committee Meeting: Sunday, July 25 1:00 JW Marriott, Las Vegas

ASA International Conference in Las Vegas July 25-28

July 2010

8:30-9:30

9:45-10:45

11:00-12:00

12:00

1:30-2:30

2:45-3:45

4:00-5:00

6:00 PM

Fri 23

Budget & Finance Committee Meeting

Governor’s Dinner

Sat 24

Board of Governors Meeting

Sun 25

Lunch

1:00 G&J Meeting

Gala Dinner with the “Rat Pack”

Mon 26

Awards Breakfast

General Session

Lunch

Jeff Appling

Craig Lynch

Peter Shemonsky

G&J Speakers’ Dinner

Tue 27

Roger Durkin Esq. ASA

Lunch

Pat Stout
1:30 – 3:00

Peter Yantzer
3:15 –

Peter Yantzer

5:00

Networking, Mixer & Auction

Wed 28

Dan Goodsell Esq.

8:30 – 10:00

Brian Gavin

10:15 – 11:15

Nancy Stacy, ASA

11:30 – 1:00

$15 shuttle to Airport
1:30 & 3:00

Awards buffet breakfast included with registration

Round-trip shuttles to the Las Vegas strip 6:00 – Midnight Monday & Tuesday evenings

Christie Romero Scholarship

jewelrycamp | April, 2010

Announcing the Christie Romero Jewelry Camp Scholarship Fund

Barry Weber of Edith Weber Jewelry has established a scholarship fund in the memory of beloved faculty member Christie Romero. The firm will donate tuition for one worthy student each year.

Sandy and Ed Lewand have generously offered to donate dorm housing and campus dining privileges to the recipient of the award.

Applicants for the 2010 scholarship should compose a brief essay or e-mail explaining why they should be selected to attend. Please send applications to barry@edithweber.com. The cut-off date for scholarship application is May 31st, 2010. The recipient of the award will be announced in June.

Ed and Sandy are also offering a discounted tuition to “Jewelry Camp 2010” for all Students and Jewelry Organization Members, ASA, AAA, ISA, GIA, etc. Please contact Sandy Lewand at 631-471-1922 or 631-377-9766, you may also reach me by email at jewelrycamp@me.com

Report from ICA Lab Conference

By Teri Brossmer, GG, ASA
Master Gemologist Appraiser

On February 01, 2010, the International Colored Stone Association (ICA) held their annual Gemstone Industry and Laboratory Conference at the Tucson Convention Center. The event was sponsored by GEMFIELDS, a UK company dedicated to fair-trade practices while remaining in accordance with the highest level of environmental, social and safety standards in their mine to market strategy for un-treated Zambian Emeralds. www.gemfields.co.uk

The conference was a literal “who’s who” in the world of colored stone science and marketing. True to its reputation, the conference provided spirited discussions among those learned and passionate members of the scientific gemstone community regarding treatment disclosure and uniform grading systems for colored stones.

Treated Rubies

Christopher P. Smith, owner American Gemological Laboratories in New York provided an informative update on the heavily treated rubies currently flooding the market. He suggested that the Rubies are in many cases so heavily filled with lead glass that they should be called “Composite Rubies”. Others disagreed, suggesting nomenclature such as “Hybrid Rubies”, or “Lead-Glass Filled Rubies” be adopted as gem-trade terminology. A task force was assembled and will report back to the organization with their suggestion for the name ICA will endorse when referring to these gemstones at the next ICA meeting.

Although on the surface the nomenclature appears to be a relatively innocuous decision, the impact of the name endorsement is far-reaching. In choosing a name for the treated Rubies, the precedent that it sets must be considered. Some names are perceived more negatively than others by the buying public and could render a product unsalable. Among the arguments put forth during the discussion as that Emeralds have long been treated with oil mixed with epoxy agents that act as stabilizers and allow otherwise unattractive, and in some cases unstable gemstones to be sold, worn, and enjoyed. We all remember what the lack of disclosure of the Emerald treatments did to the Emerald market many years ago when the treatments were made public by the press.

It was argued that what makes the lead glass filled Rubies different from the epoxy filled Emeralds is that the treated Rubies are unstable under normal wear and tear conditions. The appearance of the treated Rubies is visibly changed with exposure to common household chemicals such as lemon juice, and Coca Cola. Submersion in the jeweler’s pickle will result in a pile of gravel once the glass filling dissolves, usually in less than 24 hours. Time is of the essence. All attendees agreed that it is imperative that the jewelry and gemstone industries learn all they can about the process, the stability, adopt nomenclature, and disclose, disclose, disclose.

Radioactive Turquoise

Shane McClure, Director West Coast Identification Services, Gemological Institute of America offered a presentation on Uranium as inclusions in Turquoise. The presence of the bright yellow Uranium mineral inclusions in Turquoise is, so far, specific to material mined in the Hubei Province in China. When asked whether or not the radioactivity level was dangerous to humans, Mr. McClure replied that “had the Turquoise undergone man-induced radiation that produced the same level of radioactivity it would be illegal to sell. However, since the radiation is natural due to the Uranium present, there is no legal issue with regard to the level of radioactivity”. The potential harm to humans, when extended contact with the radioactive gemstone occurs, remains to be seen. Additional information on this subject is available at http://www.gia.edu/research-resources/gems-gemology/issues/winter2009-contents/winter2009-featured-labnote.html

Ethical Mining

The issues of Ethical mining and fair trade were on everyone’s minds. ICA Vice President Jean Claude Michelou introduced the topics and opened the floor for discussion. Gemfields presented a video outlining the ethical and fair trade practices that are at the core of their company. We were all reminded that our industry cannot exist without the men and women in impoverished communities of third world countries that toil day in and day out under unimaginable conditions to bring the gemstones to market.

Importance of Lighting

The final presentation was from Dr. Pornsawat Wathankul, Academic Advisor, Gem & Jewelry Institute of Thailand. Dr. Porsawat introduced the ICA to the Colored Stone Quality Grading Scale that The Gem & Jewelry Institute of Thailand has developed and is testing and implementing with their Corundum quality reports. Strong opposition to the grading scale was voiced by some in attendance, particularly regarding the appearance that the lighting equipment was not standardized or quantifiable during the grading process, and that using dissimilar light sources would result in a different grade assignment on the same stone.

The conference was informative, interesting, and well attended. I look forward to future ICA conferences.

Tech Tips

ASA-GJ Website

We now have two easy shortcuts to our new ASA Gems & Jewelry website: www.ASA-gj.org and www.ASA-gj.com. Check it out! It is growing a little every day. If you have material that you think would be valuable (or handy) to have on our website, please send it to me at nancy@appraiser.net. If the material includes images, please send them as jpg files. Images embedded in a document become severely degraded.

Find an Appraiser

I Don’t Come Up on ASA Find an Appraiser!

If you updated your preference on the new website perhaps you didn’t make the search parameters wide enough.

Try going through the new preferences page again, with this in mind. Sign in . . wait a sec . . Click on “members” then “My ASA” then “For Me”. (That’s half the battle, right there!) Then check through what you have chosen before and try to broaden it. I don’t think it is very helpful, however, to list the entire country as your work area. It might be more helpful to widen the geographic search radius.

Especially, check the keywords. It looks like users need to enter “diamond, gem, watch, sapphire” etc. to get a result.

When I searched my own zip code, I got me, an appraiser in New York, one in Florida and one in Michigan. They had obviously stipulated the entire US as their work area.

USPAP Discussion Group

There is a new Linked In group for discussing (and perhaps help to change) USPAP regulations for Sections 7 & 8, Personal Property appraisal. There is considerable interest in this forum from some very qualified appraisers. Check it out and join by clicking http://tinyurl.com/Linked-In-USPAP

ASA Governor’s Bulletin

Greg Ansel, ASA, Region 5 Governor

This last month has been busy. I have participated in multiple Budget & Finance (“B&F”) call, and the annual budgeting meeting and our monthly Board of Governor (“BoG”) call.

The B&F Committee has done numerous positives that will hopefully set the course to improve the ASA’s finances over the long-term. First, we met and set the budget for FY 2011. The finances are improving and past efficiencies are starting to show. Second, while HQ has a significant part of the budget, overall expenses are lower than two years ago. Third, ASA did not increase dues in FY 2010 and only modest dues increases are recommended for FY 2011. Fourth, HQ plans to increase both member service as well as recruiting efforts to both provide more member benefits and increase membership. Fifth, the B&F Committee recommended that ASA increase its contribution to IVSC (International Valuation Standards Committee) to not only be a financial contributor, but be a member discussing and recommending policy. Lastly, the B&F Committee with direct contribution from the discipline committee treasurers unanimously recommended the adoption of a centralized accounting system which should increase efficiency and hopefully reduce future audit costs.

The primary issue for the Board of Governors was to address the various International education proposals. You may have seen the email from HQ that indicated that the BoG recommended a continuation of the collaboration with the CICBV. This was discussed at length and while the BVC began the process last year, the committee now charged with developing this proposal is multi-discipline. The BoG was encouraged by the progress but noted the proposal is still fluid and there are issues/decisions still to be made. The BoG approved the continuation of the discussions with the goal of a formal proposal to be presented in the future and hopefully at the BoG meeting at the International Conference in Las Vegas. The BoG also approved a proposal to create a Personal Property Virtual Chapter, similarly as to what was done for Gems & Jewelry. In addition, the BoG recognizing the international flavor or our membership resolved to accept Canadian USPAP (CUSPAP) as equivalent for USPAP for our Canadian members.

Personally, I have been very encouraged as to both the productiveness of the BoG and B&F Committee as well as the hard work and overall desire of all to do what is best for ASA and the members.

The Chapters have been a topic of discussion as many are active and many are not active. If you are in an active chapter, please participate and take advantage of the many programs and benefits. You younger members are needed to provide both energy and continuity for the future success of the ASA. If you are in an inactive chapter, please take the initiative to build and reinvigorate your chapter. I can and will help you with program ideas, phone trees or email messages. Let’s do all we can do to strengthen the ASA at the National, Regional and Local levels.

As always should you have any questions or concerns please contact your local chapter president or one of your G&J governors. Thank you to Greg Ansel for sharing this report.

Committee Members

Officers

Chair: Gary Smith, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Vice Chair: Mary Reich, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Secretary: Marti Hubbard, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Treasurer: Christine York, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Board Members

Jennifer Thornton-Davis, ASA, Master Gemologist Appraiser (Past Chair)

Mona Miller, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Tracy Aros, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Teri Newman-Brossmer, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Carole Richbourg, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Susan Eisen, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

David Bowie, GG, ASA

Nancy Stacy, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Gems & Jewelry Governors

Jennifer Thornton-Davis, ASA, Master Gemologist Appraiser

Gary Smith, GG, ASA Master Gemologist Appraiser

Images

See photos from Tucson here