OPAL ASSOCIATION INC
2018 AGM
LOCALE: LEVEL 2, QT HOTEL SURFERS PARADISE
DATE: 8 AM 3 AUGUST 2018
PRESENT:
PAUL SEDAWIE
WAYNE SEDAWIE
ROSS SEDAWIE
ANDREW CODY
DAMIEN CODY
EDMOND LAHOUD
GEORGE EM CHRISTIANOS
YIANNIS ATHANASIADIS
ERIK MADSEN
SALLY PATEL
MAX LANE
CHRIS GAWTHORPE
SAM MANIS
MARIO (MARIORA – GOLD COAST)
DARREN JACK
KEN WILLS
APOLOGIES:
STEVE FROM RAINBOW STORY;
JUSTIN THOMAS
The President Paul Sedawie declared the meeting open at 8 am.
The President Paul Sedawie moved that the minutes of the last AGM be accepted. Max Lane seconded the motion and it was passed.
Quick Mentions – Meeting Agenda
The President (hereinafter PS) made a special mention of all the work that Andrew Cody had put in in relation to nomenclature and that of Ruth Benjamin Thomas and of her presentation at the Lightning Ridge Opal Symposium of the previous week. The Opal Association having purchased an Opal classification reference set from Cody Opals which would be made available to members to view and refer to once a methods of doing so was settled.
PS further mentioned the problem of inbound tourism especially with Chinese tourists and synthetic Opals being sold as “Natural opals”. This is a large scale problem and we need to consider what to do about this. The ACCC tends to give out a $10,000 fine to the perpetrators after six months of deliberation and delays (who are generally Chinese or Chinese Australians who often hire a western employee to play the role of the owners of the business and operate out of warehouses or second storey premises in out of the way locations)
One problematic product is called a “Pandora Opal Bead” which is neither a Pandora product nor an Opal. The value may be around $20 and it is being marketed to inbound Chinese tourists for a nett price of around $700.
PS mentioned that it was decided that the issue of Opal certificates and how to implement them would go to a Certification Subcommittee.
Treasurer’s Report
PS circulated a copy of the Treasurer’s report which would be emailed to members. Roughly it showed cash inflows of $21000, outlays of $18000 and a balance of $26932.
PS moved to accept the Treasurers Report – Chris Gawthorp Seconded. Resolved to accept the Treasurer’s Report.
Election of Office Bearers
PS noted that six weeks ago there was an email circular that went out asking for nominations of office bearers. PS also noted that OA website was corrupted from the server and had to be completely reloaded. This led to some communication difficulties. Several members reported receiving the email many times over. This was likely due to the corruption of the server.
PS noted that no nominations were received by email or mail and asked presently if anyone new would nominate and there were no new nominees. PS moved to nominate the existing committee for another year. Andrew Cody seconded.
PS nominated Andrew Cody re Classification Liaison Office – Seconded by Ross Sedawie.
Andrew Cody addressed the meeting re the new modified nomenclature and the Classification Kit which the Opal Association has purchased from Cody Opals. It is one of a limited number of kits which have been put together for education and training of certifying bodies all over the world such as GIA, GRS, NGTC etc and these kits have been sold to most of these bodies. The kits have an accompanying book. The kits contain actual samples of Opals from around the world, focussing closely on Australian Opals and providing a sample of each bodytone shade from N1 to N9, each brightness level, samples of various levels of transparency and opaqueness (diaphaneity), samples of the various fire colours etc. The GIA have purchased around 13 kits for their locations around the world for teaching gemmologists and students as well as for grading decisions. Andrew further mentioned the work of Damien Cody at the ICA and CIBJO as well as the new US FTC jewellery ruling which has just come out in the previous few days.
PS thanked Andrew Cody on behalf of the Opal Association for the work he has done.
Normal Business
The Synthetic Opals Problem
The problem with synthetic Opals and misrepresentation to inbound tourists was addressed at length by PS. This is a big issue costing the industry millions of dollars and the ACCC appears powerless to stop it in its tracks although PS’ meeting with the trade Minister Steve Ciobo resulted in the minister saying that the ACCC had sufficient powers to deal with it. The problem in practice is that the fines are slow, insufficient to prevent the conduct and don’t catch enough of these operators and so the profit is a big incentive for them to keep on going or relocating to another premises and continue the same business model. The foremost example being the “Opal Pandora Bead” which is a synthetic Opal bead and has nothing to do with the Pandora brand and the value of which may be around $20 but is being misrepresented and sold to inbound (mainly Chinese) tour groups for $600-700 after discount.
PS also suggested that we approach Pandora Co and make them aware of the practice and see if they are able to expend effort and funds pursuing these operators as they are passing off the goods as Pandora goods.
Certification
Certification of opals including a statement as to origin (where this is able to be determined due to actual knowledge or irrefutable tell tales eg the ironstone on a boulder makes it a Queensland origin) – these are required often at retail and also by wholesale resellers. Whereas the big grading institutes such as GIA, GRS etc can issue certificates (hopefully better ones now they have the Classification kits), these are time consuming and costly and where the stone’s value is in the hundreds of dollars it doesn’t always make sense to spend $USD100 on a certificate. Also several members currently issue their own certificates on their own stationery. The Opal Association has been permitting the use of its form for members to issue certificates and this has raised two concerns, the first being the liability of the Association where the form is misused, the second being the reputation of the Association where the form is misused or where the disclaimer on the form is worded so strictly as to render the certificate of little use.
One solution to the above we discussed is to reword the form so that the stationery is that of the Opal Association, but the certifier is the member him/her self. So who is certifying the information is the member and no the Association although the form itself has the Association logo. Further, a disclaimer stating that the Association has not examined the stone and that the Certificate is issued in accordance with the Association code of conduct.
Furthermore we discussed possibly testing members on their classification prior to permitting them to issue certificates on the stationery of the Association so that way we are discharging our duty of care by determining that the member is in fact capable of correctly classifying various Opals. If we did not do this and simply permitted everyone to write certificates it invites fraud as, for example, a non-member could become a member for the purpose of committing a fraud with greater ease by the use of our certificate forms.
It was considered that perhaps a sub-committee be formed re testing and qualifying members who can then issue certificates on Opal Association stationery once they have shown they are competent to classify.
PS suggested that we could determine a list if gemmologists around the country (and indeed the world) who could issue certificates of a higher level for more valuable Opals on behalf of the Association. It is not clear whether this would be on Association stationery or their own.
PS declared the meeting closed at 8:52 am
Membership Payments
We have received a considerable amount of membership payments thank you, we have been matching them with the memberships on the Website as best we can, but there is a couple of unaccounted payments with no matching Name or number.
If you could please check the list below for membership fees that have been received and if you believe you have already made payment and are not on the list please email [email protected] to let us know you’re up to date.
If payments are not received by the end of September your membership will be made in –active.
Payment can be made directly to:
Opal association incorporated
West pac Lightning Ridge
BSB 032 561 Account # 184141
- Andamooka Opals 8
- Vladimir Opalion 40
- Broken River Mining 147
- Gazza Opal Magic 162
- Opalplus 17
- Opalshop Robert Short 137
- Madsen Opals 28
- Ken Willis Flood gems 32
- Unique Opal Mines 142
- Austgems Elaine Raines 134
- Signature Opals 46
- Precious gems 151
- Down to Earth Opals 30
- Jasper Zhong Jety Jewellery 150
- Gina Chen Green 139
- Sam Manus 91
- Evergreen (not sure of your OA member name?)
- Shinko Masuda 148
- Chambers of the black hand 29
- Sedaopals 14
- Ross Sedawie 2
- Jia Ling 138
- Gazza 162
- Rainbow Story 44
- Fortune Opals 33
- Walkabout Opals 159
- Ratliff Opals 45
- Earth Fire Opals 116
- Ari Khadigian 160
- Ridgey Didge 160
- Joy Clayton 80
- Precious Gems 151
- Kastle Group 36
- Gems and Minerals 122
- Black Opal Direct 131
- LRMA 78
- Keith Rigby 79
- Virgin Opals 75