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- Party and Auction sponsored by the GIA Alumni Association -
Friday, February 8
6:45 - 11 p.m.
The Marriott University Park Hotel
Tucson, Arizona
Make your reservation now
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GIA Launches Public
Awareness Campaign
How
many of your customers are really familiar with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and its grading reports? Do they get a blank look on their
face and say "Gia, you mean that fashion model Angelina Jolie played in a TV movie?" when you mention it?
That's about to
change. GIA launched its first-ever national advertising campaign last week to let the public know it exists as a resource to enhance their diamond
education and encourage them to request GIA Diamond Grading Reports.
The advertisements, which will appear in GQ,
Town & Country and Men's Journal, among others, will also help raise public awareness about the importance of seeking out
GIA-trained jewelers like you.
GIA is developing a Retailer Support Kit, in conjunction with the campaign, that will have
point-of-sale materials to help you talk about the 4Cs and the International Diamond Grading System with your customers and reinforce the message of
the campaign, "The Difference Between Wondering and Knowing." These kits will be available in mid-November.
You can also send
your customers to a new consumer-friendly Web site that covers the 4Cs,
how
GIA grades diamonds and how to read a GIA Diamond Grading Report. It also offers basic knowledge about diamond origins; the differences between
natural diamonds, synthetics and simulants; details about diamond care; and other diamond essentials.
Look for more detailed information in the Fall 2007 issue of The Loupe.
Lab Offers Holiday Express Service
Got a customer who won't buy
diamond without a GIA Diamond Grading Report? If so, the GIA Laboratory is here to
help.
For a limited time - now through Dec. 18 - you can ask the GIA Laboratory to expedite a report on that stone.
All you need to do is contact the Lab before you send it in,
and on a case-by-case basis, depending on that day's volume, it may be possible to get you the results you need within three
days.
Just make a call to your GIA Laboratory customer service representative. For the New York laboratory, call (212) 221-5858; for the
Carlsbad laboratory, call (760)
603-4500.
It's that simple.
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Alumni Awards Will be Presented in Tucson
The winners are in. We revamped our GIA International Alumni Awards program earlier this year and you raced to get your chapter
winners/nominations in. Key GIA leadership will meet with the Alumni Executive Council to choose one overall winner each for the Alumni Achievement
Award and the Alumni Leadership Award.
Check out Alumni
Awards to read more about the new program and see the list of chapter winners. The two final honorees, along with
all individual chapter winners, will be recognized at the Alumni auction and dance party in Tucson. |
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Al Gilbertson, G.G.
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Matt Hall
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GIA Researchers Available to Speak to Chapters
Want the inside scoop on some of the latest gemological services GIA has to offer? Invite a GIA Lab researcher to your next
chapter meeting. There's no better way to find out about these new services and the challenges and treatments researchers are working on. And it
won't cost you a thing.
Al Gilbertson, Research associate; Matt Hall, manager of New York Identification Services; Donna Beaton, supervisor, Colored
Stones, GIA New York; and others, are available to provide updates on one of the following topics: beryllium in sapphire, tourmaline country of
origin, diamond cut grading, lead glass filling of corundum, blue topaz, coatings, diamond cut history and colored diamond related topics.
Contact Rose McKenna, manager of Alumni Relations for more information. |
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Alumni Chapters Celebrate
25th Anniversaries
Two Alumni Association Chapters were recently recognized for their 25th anniversaries. The Alumni Association Japan and the
Hong Kong Alumni Chapter were among the first to form when GIA created its Alumni Association in 1982.
Brook Ellis, vice president of GIA Education presented plaques to Yoshiko
Doi, director of GIA Japan, for
the Alumni Association Japan; and Irene Leung, president of the Hong Kong Alumni Chapter during GemFest Asia - Hong Kong 2007 in
September.
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Brook Ellis with Yoshiko Doi
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Get Your 2007 Continuing Education Certificate
It's not too late to sign up for GIA's new Continuing Education Program: you have until Dec. 31 to register and participate for
2007. Complete and pass the required assignments by Feb. 28, 2008, and you'll be eligible to receive the 2007 Continuing Education Credential. The
program is open to GIA Gemologists and Graduate Gemologists.
Continuing Education certificates, which show you are serious about staying on top of the latest developments in the gem and
jewelry industry, are available after you complete any five assignments within one calendar year. A pop-up box will appear and guide you to the
online
request form titled, "Petition to Graduate: Request for Certificate or Diploma." A $45 processing fee applies.
Learn
more, sign up, or browse the latest assignments. |
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Participants enjoy a short boat ride on Kuri Bay as they explore Paspaley's cultured
pearl farm.
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The Cultured Pearl Diaries
They're back! More than 25 alums and spouses traveled the South Pacific with the GIA
Alumni Association early this fall on a quest to learn about cultured pearls.
They made their way
from Tahiti to New Zealand and Australia as guests of three
well-known cultured pearl producers: Robert Wan, of Robert Wan Tahiti;
Roger Beattie, of Eyris Blue Pearl Company; and Nicholas Paspaley, of
Paspaley
Pearling Company PL. Each host provided rare, behind-the-scenes tours
of the exotic world of cultured pearl farming and the travelers kept
trip
diaries to remember what they saw and learned.
"The one thing that
stands out from all three companies we visited is that an enormous
volume of pearls must be harvested to retrieve the few that are truly
spectacular," Jeff Alexander wrote. "It may take a number of harvests
over
a number of years to get enough cultured pearls of high quality and
matching color to create a beautiful strand of Tahitian pearls or South
Sea
Pearls from Australia. That, in combination with the tremendous support
system needed to sustain these operations, will help me in explaining
the
beauty, rarity and price of these incredible pearls."
You can read more about this exciting Alumni Association trip - and see the striking
photos they snapped - in the Fall 2007 issue of The Loupe. Here's a sneak peek.
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The Father of Modern Gemology, Richard T. Liddicoat
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Donors Set RTL Scholars
on Path to Success
We asked and you came through. Thanks to the generosity of so many alums, eight students - yes, eight - have received full-tuition
rewards from the Richard T. Liddicoat (RTL) Scholarship Fund, which was established to honor Liddicoat's contributions to gemology and his
belief in the power of education.
These students who set their sets on a career in the gem and jewelry industry are well
on their
way to success - because you believed in
Mr. Liddicoat's vision and stepped up to the plate to help them out.
Join us in Tucson where two more scholarship winners will be
announced. Click here to see a list of
donors who are helping future gemologists make
their
dreams come true and for more information about how to participate.
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Al Gilbertson, G.G., will speak to the North Texas Chapter about his new book on the
history of diamond cut on Oct. 28.
See more Chapter Events
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