ICA reorganizes its committee structure

The International Colored Gemstones Association has reorganized its working committee structure for 2005-2007. These committees, headed by ICA board members, attend to areas that ICA is committed to develop for the benefit of the colored gemstone industry at large and the organization’s members in particular, and also look after the association’s daily activities.

One of ICA’s essential committees is the Mining Committee, now headed by ICA Director Bhadresh N. Pandit of Arusha, Tanzania. This committee is responsible for gathering worldwide information on new production, mines, and other data relating to mines and mining. The committee hopes to publish an ICA mining report by the end of the year, he said.

ICA added a new body, the Certification Committee-Mining, chaired by ICA Director Sergio Martins from Brazil. This committee is charged with creating protocols and standards that can be used to recognize mine operators’ exemplary performance in areas of ethical, environmental, ecological, or humanitarian issues; and to establish a clear understanding of conflict-free merchandise, throughout the pipeline, or from mine to market.

ICA also established a Communications Committee, headed by ICA Vice President Jean Claude Michelou. This committee will oversee all aspects of communications from ICA to its members, the trade and consumer media, and the public. The committee will supervise the ICA Gazette newsletter, the periodic “Ambassador Reports,” the issuance of press releases, publishing intra-industry articles, and the creation of articles for the consumer press. It will also oversee the ICA Web site and ICA Gem bureaus’ activities.

In order to communicate effectively with its members in each country, ICA appoints “ambassadors,” who function as the ICA’s local contact hub. During the past two years, the coordination of ambassadors was done on a voluntary basis. This task is now belongs to Rui Galopim De Carvalho of Portugal, who took over the job of Damien Cody of Australia.

In other committee news, the ICA board appointed new ICA Director Edward Boehm, of San Diego, Calif., to head and revitalize the ICA Membership Committee. Boehm is a third-generation ICA member. He was named after his grandfather, Eduard Gübelin, the legendary Swiss gemologist who passed away recently. Gübelin was a founding organizing member of ICA.

Other new committees include a promotions committee overseeing an integrated campaign aimed at promoting gems, and reaching the consumer market; as well as a special task force on China which is made up of experts in the region and who will help others in the industry to understand this emerging giant.

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