To drum up more participation from outside the American Gem Trade Association membership, AGTA’s Gem Testing Center laboratory is offering a new incentive program for non-AGTA member clients.

The AGTA GTC Associate Program was developed for laboratory clients who do not qualify for AGTA membership but would like to receive member-preferred pricing. For a $1,000 annual fee, participants in the new program will receive a significant discount on laboratory services. AGTA’s Web site includes an application and price list.

AGTA has made other improvements to its Web site. “A number of clients have asked us to consider making our gemological bulletins available to a wider audience,” says Dr. Lore Kiefert, director of AGTA. “Toward that aim, over the past few months we have built a Web site specifically for the AGTA GTC. It is now live and offers a complete archive of our e-mail bulletins, along with a full description of the lab and its services.”

AGTA’s Web address is www.agta.org; the GTC address is www.agta-gtc.org.