New Blog Address

Thank you for your interest in the Oceanside Chamber Blog. We have moved our blog to a new location in order to take advantage of some incredible features that are available to us through Wordpress.org.

Our new blog address is www.OceansideChamberBlog.com. Please visit us there to keep up with what we are doing. You can also follow us on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/OsideCAChamber.

Our North County Young Professionals Group is now on Twitter. Please follow them at http://ping.fm/BAMFP

Welcome New Chamber Member, IdeaArc, publishers of Verizon Yellow Pages...http:www.idearc.com

Working on moving Chamber Blog over to Wordpress.org. Many great features that will allow us to Blog in a powerful way!

Good article by Chamber Member Angela Nielsen, @onelily, on Choosing your Domain Name...
http://is.gd/1ckPH

Exciting Developments for Business Showcase Blog

Mark Baldin of AerAlliance has created a great new look for our S.D. Business Showcase Blog...http://ping.fm/yl9BJ. We now have the opportunity to add many new functions. As we did last year, we will provide all exhibitors with user names and passwords so they can login and add posts to the blog. This provides a great way for exhibitors to get a whole year's worth of exposure for the price of booth space at a one day event!

We'll also be adding opportunies for exhibitors and sponsors to place display ads and video ads on the site. Stay tuned for more details.

Great job by Tri-City Wellness Ctr on 4-chamber mixer. Photos now available on Facebook at ...http://ping.fm/nrpsD

Tonight-Annual 4 Chamber Mixer - Several hundred people. Tri-City Wellness Center, 6250 El Camino Real, Carlsbad. Come out and network from 4pm to 7pm.

Just got the Chamber set up on Ping.fm. What a great tool for getting the word out to all your social media sites at one time. Having trouble getting it to talk to our Facebook Fan Page though. Can anyone help?

What is the Oceanside Chamber?

Today, the Chamber celebrated the Installation of our new Board of Directors, said thank you to some outgoing Board Members and recognized some key community leaders. First I would like to offer the following congratulations:

Business of the Year: Pacific Marine Credit Union
Ambassador of the Year: Joan Burns
Volunteer of the Year: Chip Dykes

The event was great and photos are available on our Facebook page. However, the reason I'm writing this post is not to necessarily speak about the event itself, but rather to talk about the speech made by our outgoing Board Chair, Bruce Tait. I have worked at the Oceanside Chamber for 13 years and I don't think I have ever heard the Chamber described better than how Bruce explained it today.

Bruce has graciously allowed me to share his speech on the Chamber Blog, so I would ask you to please take a few minutes to read the following, as I feel it will help you connect with the true purpose of your Chamber...

Some of you may think that a farewell speech may be about my term in office, but I’m not really going to talk about that. But I do have a question to ask: What IS this Oceanside Chamber of Commerce? What would make a person want to join this Chamber? What would make someone want to volunteer to spend dozens or hundreds of hours a year with an organization?

The surveys all say that the primary thing that people want out of a Chamber of Commerce is networking. But, I believe that it takes more than just networking to keep bringing members back. But, what IS it about this Chamber of Commerce?!

Perhaps we need to look outside the Chamber for the answers. Maybe we should ask the students in the school district who received scholarships from the Chamber what it means to them. Possibly we should ask the schools who received grants what the Chamber is and does.
Or, what about asking the citizens of Oceanside if they like having more tax dollars in the City’s accounts for police, fire and fixing the potholes in front of their homes. After all, the California Welcome Center, operated by the Chamber, brings in hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in direct and indirect additional tax money due to the tourism advertising and marketing that they do. They might say that the Chamber is acting on behalf of the community and promoting an enhanced quality of life.

Or you could ask the family who spent the day at Harbor Days, watched a pirate battle, a nail and sail contest, or climbed on the Camp Pendleton LCAC hovercraft, what they thought about the event or the organization that sponsored it.

When they first moved to the area after being stationed in Camp Pendleton, most Marine Corps and Navy families had never heard of the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce. But we wanted to show our appreciation for families who were willing to join a team. A team that was willing to put themselves in harms way to defend the values and way of life that make this County so great. So the Chamber of Commerce has been providing food and entertainment at Operation Appreciation and hosting golf events for enlisted personnel for many years.

Perhaps we should ask the enlisted men and women honored at the quarterly breakfasts: Who is that Chamber of Commerce?!

If you were to ask an attendee at the Chamber hosted Health Fair, they might say that the Chamber is an organization that promotes an enhanced quality of life.

Those who watched the Council and Mayoral Candidates forum might have a slightly different answer. They may have watched the forum, co-hosted by the Chamber, and say: Wow, they sure asked a lot of questions about the candidate’s positions regarding business in Oceanside. They sure are promoting a strong business climate.

Maybe we should ask the residents in the western portion of the 760 area code (that’s us by the way) if they wanted to change their area code and have to change the phone numbers on all their websites, letterheads, envelopes, business cards, etc. They might say that the Chamber promoted a better business climate by being part of a team lead by Assemblyman Garrick’s office in opposing the area code split.

The supporters of the Oceanside Malkin Hotel project might say that the Chamber took a leadership role in teaming with the Oceanside Hotel Coalition and also in obtaining signatures on a letter from 22 elected officials in Southern California supporting the project at the California Coastal Commission.

Our members would probably say that by expressing our opinion in letters to local, state and federal officials, we provide a collective voice in speaking in support of business friendly proposals and against those that would harm the health of our business community.

How about if we bring up the question a little bit closer to home? Let’s ask the business members who went to the North County Business Showcase and
• Gained more leads than in any other one day show that they had been to
• Had incredible turn outs at their booths
• made over 200 new contacts and obtained a record amount of solid leads, and
• said the show was well-organized and it was run smoothly by very professional staff, and
• said they would recommend this show to anyone wishing to conduct business in the area, and
• received over 200 inquiries and a number of immediate orders, resulting in new clients, referrals, and future business.

Or as one of the less shy new members of our Board had said: “You guys rock!” I think that translates to: “You promote a strong business climate.” “You rock” sounds better though!

Another question you might want to ask our members is: how about the Chamber’s ability to educate its members in areas applicable to their businesses? They might answer by “tweeting”, a skill that is soon to be taught in Chamber classes, or by sharing on Facebook, or on LinkedIn, or by blogging, all currently available on the Chamber website.

Oh.. And by the way, our members are happy about the networking opportunities. As you can see on our website, they’ve said things like...

"The Chamber’s recent 5 minute networking event provided a return on my investment in merely 5 days. The contacts made were invaluable and I will certainly participate again."

"Since joining we have gained many new clients and have received over a 40:1 return on investment. I wish there were more organizations as professional and as proactive as yours."

"35% of our contact database are contacts made as a direct result of our participation and membership in the Oceanside Chamber! Additionally about 10% of all our clients came from networking at Chamber events and the Chamber's Business Showcase. "

So if you asked around, you might get answers like: The Chamber provides leadership for its members. It provides a collective voice for its members and the community. It promotes a strong business climate. It promotes an enhanced quality of life.

Bruce went on to thank the many volunteers, committee members and board members for making the Chamber what it is.

I want to thank Bruce for helping make our impact on the community so clear in his speech today. Well said Bruce!

Golf with a Hero Raises $4700 for Military Charities!

We are so excited that our Annual Golf with a Hero event is going to help some of our nation's hereos and their families. Due to the generous support of our sponsors, golfers, gift donors and volunteers, we are able to write checks to two local military charities, Camp Pendleton Armed Services YMCA and HirePatriots.com/PatrioticHearts. Both of these organizations provide important services to our military families. Please visit their websites to learn more about them.

The event also provided a very enjoyable day of golf to a great group of Marines. See our complete 2009 photo album on Facebook.

Special thanks to all our sponsors: Corporate Sponsors: Pacific Marine Credit Union, Straub Construction, Inc., Stronghold Engineering, Inc., Sundt Construction. Golf Ball Sponsor: Oshkosh Corporation. Putting Green Sponsor Eternal Hills Memorial Park. Driving Range Sponsor:Watts Constructors/Pave-Tech. Monster Drive Sponsor: Sun Mechanical Company. Tee & Green Sponsors: 1st Pacific Bank, El Camino Rental, FastSigns Vista, HDR Engineering, Mossy Nissan, Navy Federal Credit Union, Ocean's 11 Casino, Pala Casino Resort and Spa, R.A. Burch Construction Co., Inc., San Diego Auto Auction, San Diego Gas & Electric, Seagate Corporate Center, Sun Mechanical Company, U.S. Bank, Waste Management of North County and Wells Fargo Bank.

More Chamber Members Join Twitter!

Since my posting on this topic a couple of weeks ago, I noticed several other Chamber had either joined Twitter, or starting following us. So here's the latest list of Chamber members on Twitter. Please follow them and see what a great business community we have!

http://twitter.com/101Cafe - 101 Cafe
http://twitter.com/BeachSoccer - Oceanside Beach Soccer
http://twitter.com/legoland_ca - Legoland California
http://twitter.com/jerrysalyer - Salyer Insurance
http://twitter.com/GoNCTD - North County Transit District
http://twitter.com/scaldera - Quantum Learning Network
http://twitter.com/401COUNTRYCLUB - Boys & Girls Club of Oceanside
http://twitter.com/SanDiegoBBB - San Diego BBB
http://twitter.com/UnionTribune - San Diego Union Tribune
http://twitter.com/visitsandiego - San Diego Convis
http://twitter.com/Amazeinc - A-MAZEINC Internet Solutions
http://twitter.com/janicex21 - Residence Inn by Marriott Oceanside
http://twitter.com/RIOceanside - Residence Inn by Marriott Oceanside
http://twitter.com/Harney_Sushi - Harney Sushi
http://twitter.com/sddt - The Daily Transcipt
http://twitter.com/nctimes - North County Times
http://twitter.com/cooleremail - Cooler Email
http://twitter.com/jchapon - Quantum Learning Networking
http://twitter.com/DiveandKayak - Oceanside Dive & Kayak
http://twitter.com/onelily - One Lily Web Solutions
http://twitter.com/vespasandiego - Vespa San Diego
http://twitter.com/QuinnsRapidWebs - Quinn's Rapid Recharger
http://twitter.com/sonictweet - Sonic Spider
http://twitter.com/fpandg - Foremost Printing & Graphics
http://twitter.com/BtrVacationRent - Better Vacation Rentals
http://twitter.com/CoCoGal - Coco & Associates, Inc.
http://twitter.com/smartersmallbiz - Smarter Small Business
http://twitter.com/melmoore - Sonic Spider
http://twitter.com/ComputerGeeks - Computer Geeks
http://twitter.com/SuperCamp - Supercamp
http://twitter.com/njrprod - njr productions
http://twitter.com/BobbiDeporter - Quantum Learning Network
http://twitter.com/cvanderpool - Legacy Protective Services
http://twitter.com/davebranfman - Branfman Law Group, P.C.
http://twitter.com/DestinyBoutique - Destiny Boutique
http://twitter.com/henryjordan - Jordan Associates
http://twitter.com/HotelBellRooms - Bell Hotel Housing
http://twitter.com/ipCamz - Premiere Surveillance Systems, LLC
http://twitter.com/jeremyjennings - MailingList.org
http://twitter.com/JoanBurns - Sampson & Associates
http://twitter.com/PWIWORKS - Partnership with Industry
http://twitter.com/RitaSRESRealtor - Rita Harper
http://twitter.com/RyanDHarris - Law Offices of Ryan Harris
http://twitter.com/SantinosPizza - Santino's Pizza
http://twitter.com/WordsINKSD - Words Ink!
http://twitter.com/MissionSLR - Mission San Luis Rey
http://twitter.com/CSofSoCal - Creative Solutions of Southern California

If you belong on this list and we missed you, just email me at scott@oceansidechamber.com. Happy Tweeting.

Plates for 8 are Great!

If you are a Chamber member and have never attended one of our "Plates for 8" Small Group Networking Luncheons, PLEASE try one! These have become our most popular and productive networking event. As Chamber Member Stan Quinn put it in his Twitter posting this morning...

A screen shot (even 140 characters) is worth a thousand words. But in case this screen shot is too small for you to read, Stan was saying "Oside Chamber Plates for 8. One of the best networking functions I attend." Thanks Stan!

What is a Plates for 8? Well, here's how we describe them on the Chamber website: "Plates for 8 Luncheons provide a chance for 8-10 Chamber Members to join for lunch and learn more about each other’s businesses. A Chamber representative hosts and facilitates the “Plates for Eight” luncheon at a local restaurant in order to provide an in depth networking opportunity for a small group of members."

We have two terrific Members Services Representatives, Joanne Harris and Sue Pixler that facilitate these luncheons for us. They each typically run one every month. The feedback we receive on the quality of networking is tremendous. Joanne facilitated one today and apparently an hour and a half was not enough time to contain all the networking that needed to occur. Three of the attendees came back to the Chamber office to continue doing business in our conference room.

What more can I say. You have to eat lunch, so why not do it with 7 or 8 other people who could potentially be great business connections for you. Worst case scenario: you get a great lunch at Hunter Steakhouse and make some new friends.

Social Media is the Great Equalizer!

I just had a thought I wanted to share as I am preparing for a presentation to a group of Chambers in Northern California next week. I have been asked to speak on membership development to a group of small/mid sized chambers.

I have been to numerous Chamber industry conferences over the years as an attendee and a speaker; and one thing I have always noticed is that it can be overwhelming trying to implement what you learn. Representatives from smaller Chambers sometimes feel frustrated hearing presentions from speakers who work for Chambers with muli-million dollar budgets. Many attendees are left with thoughts such as "If I had the financial and staff resources that (fill in the blank) Chamber has, I could do that too, but we have a small budget and just 2 staff members."

Enter the "great equalizer"--- Social Media. In the last couple of months since diving into to social media arena, what has struck me is that it's not the Mega-Chambers that are necessarily standing out in this area, but the brightest stars in this arena seem to be smaller chambers. Most notably are the North Mason Washington Chamber, Clovis California Chamber and the Tempe Arizona Chamber. I purposely did not hyperlink to their websites because I would like you to look them up on Google. When you "google" their names you will see the strong Social Media presence that each of these Chambers has built.

A significant part of my presentation next week will be devoted to the opportunties that Chambers have to help their members grow through Social Media. I passionately believe that all Chambers, regardless of staff size or budget, have the ability to take the lead in this area.

A Great Way to Support our Troops - HirePatriots.com

For those of you looking for a way to support our local Marines & Sailors, I highly recommend you check out HirePatriots.com. This site, operated by Oceanside Chamber members, Mark & Tori Baird, provides a way for local businesses and residents to post job opportunities for our friends on Camp Pendleton.

While you can post permanent jobs on their site too, I have only used their "Day Job" feature. The Chamber frequently needs help with labor at our large community events, such as Harbor Days, the Business Showcase, North County Health Fair and others. We have had great success with the Marines & Sailors we have hired for these positions. I have also posted jobs on their site for yard work at my home, most recently yesterday, and have alway been tremendously pleased with with the quality of work.

The best part about it is you can get help on very short notice. Usually, within a matter of minutes after posting a job, we receive multiple calls. The service that Mark & Tori are providing offers a way for our service people to make a few extra bucks. Next time you need hired help with a project at your office or home, please consider HirePatriots.com.

Chamber Members Embracing Twitter

Just a few short weeks ago the Oceanside Chamber joined the Twitter revolution. We can be found at http://www.twitter.com/OsideCAChamber. We're closing in on our first 100 followers and are excited about the opportunties that this social media outlet has provided and will provide for the Chamber and our members.

I would like to recognize some of the Chamber members who we are currently following on Twitter. If you have a Twitter account and you're not on this list, please email me at scott@oceansidechamber.com so we can follow what's happening in your business.

If you don't already have a Twitter account, I recommend that you sign up and start following these Chamber members...

http://twitter.com/101Cafe - 101 Cafe
http://twitter.com/BeachSoccer - Oceanside Beach Soccer
http://twitter.com/legoland_ca - Legoland California
http://twitter.com/jerrysalyer - Salyer Insurance
http://twitter.com/GoNCTD - North County Transit District
http://twitter.com/scaldera - Quantum Learning Network
http://twitter.com/401COUNTRYCLUB - Boys & Girls Club of Oceanside
http://twitter.com/SanDiegoBBB - San Diego BBB
http://twitter.com/UnionTribune - San Diego Union Tribune
http://twitter.com/visitsandiego - San Diego Convis
http://twitter.com/Amazeinc - A-MAZEINC Internet Solutions
http://twitter.com/janicex21 - Residence Inn by Marriott Oceanside
http://twitter.com/RIOceanside - Residence Inn by Marriott Oceanside
http://twitter.com/Harney_Sushi - Harney Sushi
http://twitter.com/sddt - The Daily Transcipt
http://twitter.com/nctimes - North County Times
http://twitter.com/cooleremail - Cooler Email
http://twitter.com/jchapon - Quantum Learning Networking
http://twitter.com/DiveandKayak - Oceanside Dive & Kayak
http://twitter.com/onelily - One Lily Web Solutions
http://twitter.com/vespasandiego - Vespa San Diego
http://twitter.com/QuinnsRapidWebs - Quinn's Rapid Recharger
http://twitter.com/sonictweet - Sonic Spider
http://twitter.com/fpandg - Foremost Printing & Graphics
http://twitter.com/BtrVacationRent - Better Vacation Rentals
http://twitter.com/CoCoGal - Coco & Associates, Inc.
http://twitter.com/smartersmallbiz - Smarter Small Business
http://twitter.com/melmoore - Sonic Spider
http://twitter.com/ComputerGeeks - Computer Geeks
http://twitter.com/SuperCamp - Supercamp

I can only imagine how long this list will be one year from now. Keep tweeting!

YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Oh My!

My role at the chamber has become measurably more exciting in the last few months. We have become more in touch with the great opportunities we have to be a leader to our business community in terms of technology.

It really started to take off during the planning of our 2009 North County Business Showcase when committee members Don Reedy, Mark Baldwin and Richard Peat-Hanna started talking about the opportunties to promote the Showcase through blogging and Twitter. While we didn't get off the ground with Twitter until this month, we start our Business Showcase Blog right away, with the help of Don and Mark. Actually they did all the work and taught me how to use it. This provided instant "added value" to our exhibitors as we were able to give them the opportunity to post on the blog as soon as they signed up for booth space. It gave us a way to turn a one-day event into several months worth of exposure for our exhibitors, as you can still go to the site today and read their posts.

After that, it was time to turn my attention toward Twitter. I started my own personal Twitter account in March and then created one for the Chamber about 2 weeks ago. I see incredible opportunties for the Chamber to use Twitter to promote our members, disseminate news, publicize upcoming events, and more. You can follow us at http://twitter.com/osidecachamber.

Then of course, there is LinkedIn. I have had my own LinkedIn Profile for quite a while, but have really just begun to use it more effectively by writing recommendations for business associates, co-workers, our LINK Luncheon speakers, etc. I'll also be creating a profile for the Chamber very soon.

So what's next? Well, here are some things the Chamber be working on in upcoming months...

• A YouTube Channel for the Chamber - a place where we can feature video testimonials, videos of events, chamber member commercials and more


• A Chamber Facebook Page


• A social networking community for Chamber members


• A series of seminars on Social Networking for local businesses

Most importantly, we will keep our eyes and ears open for all opportunties that come our way to help our members grow through technology. Stay tuned!

It Isn't All Negative

Today I went to our LINK Luncheon and listened to Ursula Mentjes talk about "Selling in Tough Times". Anytime Ursula speaks it is empowering and I can see mental sparks flying around our audience. One of Ursula's points today,"Thinking about different ways to do business", really tapped my spark.
Being in the Chamber business for 4 years I have seen changes in how business is being done. I realize 4 years doesn't seem like a long time, but it has been long enough to see trends.
It seems to me, let me remind you this is just my personal opinion, that when times were good it was very easy to be successful. I mean the homeless guy down at the beach who wanted to sell hats and crickets made out of palm frawns was even doing well! It didn't take a genius to make money.
It still doesn't take a genius to make money...just a different mindset, some creativity, and great customer service. Business is still booming, people are still making connections and our economy will keep going despite the negative news we are fed through the press. Yes some things have dropped to the wasteside and those opportunities are no longer, but isn't that how the world works?
How many people do you see buying and using typewriters any more? Think about how stressed the people who made those gadgets must have been with the invention of the PC? Or how the people who made VCR and VCR tapes felt with the invention of the CD? All of these industries had to rethink how they were doing business and then reposition themselves in the face of change and technology.
Today is no different than any other time of rethinking, repositioning, and coming up with ways to be innovative and stand out from the competition.
I personally hate "Well, this is how we have always done it" type of thinking. One of my challenges in the Chamber is taking an event that I do every year and giving it a different spin, a fresh prespective, and coming up with something you haven't seen or done before. It isn't easy, believe me. But, as you can see the Chamber is trying new avenues of business as well.
Scott has been instumental with our Blog, Twitter account, and all of the Social Networking type of tools available to us. Our Chamber has been amazing with outreach to the other San Diego Chambers, and we will continue to look for new avenues of opportunity to help each one of our members thrive in the face of adversity.
If nothing else, if we all have to try just a little bit harder than we had to in the past, can you imagine how strong we will be when we pull out of this rough spot.
Let's take our businesses to the A+ level and have some fun doing it!

Come Follow us on Twitter!

The Oceanside Chamber is excited to now have a presence on Twitter. In about 2 weeks, we have attracted over 50 followers and have added 29 updates. We have found that Twitter is going to be a very valuable resource for our Chamber over the upcoming months and years. How have we used Twitter so far? Here's how...

1). To welcome our new members
2). To let our followers know about our upcoming events
3). To share interesting articles
4). To pass on links to our State Assemblymembers's e-newsletters
5). To remind our followers to vote today

This is only the tip of the iceberg in what we can potentially do with Twitter and other social networking avenues. I am tremendously excited about the opportunity for our Chamber to take the lead on social networking for our business community.

Our Twitter bio sums up what we want to do for our businesses: Embracing technology to better serve our members and community.

Check us out at http://twitter.com/OsideCAChamber

Generous Support for Golf with a Hero

At one of our recent planning meetings for our Annual Golf with a Hero event, the topic of sponsorship came up. With the challenging times in our economy, making phone calls to potential sponsors did not seem like such an appealing task this year. One of our committee members suggested contacting the companies that are currently doing business on Camp Pendleton and asking for their support.

This turned out to be a tremendously valuable suggestion, as the support from these companies has been very strong so far. Many of them responded to my initial round of emails with enthusiasm and have contributed golfers, sponsorship and more.

It is great to see the willingness of the business community to give back to our local military heroes!

The Chamber's New Web Based Services

We are excited to let you know about some great new features on the Chamber website that will help you promote your business and conveniently access information. Here’s an overview of our new features:

Online Coupons
As a Chamber Member, you can now promote your business’ special offers through our website. You can offer up to 3 different types of coupons: Member-to-Member Discounts, Military Discounts, General Public Discounts. All you need to do is go to the “Members Only” section of our website. Your login information is as follows:
Once you are in this section, click on the “Coupons” link on the left hand side. Then click on the button that says “New Coupon”. Choose the type of coupon you want to offer (Military, Member-to-Member, or General Public). Complete the form with the information you want to include and then save it. You need to go through this process for each type of coupon you want to offer.

Member News Stories
Let the world know what’s going on with your business. Send us your press releases or news stories along with a relevant photo, and we’ll include the information in our “Member News” section of our website. These items should be emailed to scott@oceansidechamber.com.

Community Events CalendarAre you holding an event related to your business? Are you putting on an educational workshop? You can promote those events at no charge on our Community Calendar. Just complete our online submission form, and we’ll add your event within 2 business days.

Other New Features
We have also added some convenient features that allow you to access your member information 24 hours a day. When you logon to our “Members Only” section, you can now...

Update Your Contact Information – if any changes are needed to your listing, you can submit them online and they will be updated on the website.

Pay Open Invoices – you can securely pay chamber invoices online with any major credit card.

Register for Events – By registering for Chamber events through the “Members Only” section, the fields will pre-populate with your contact information, making your registration process quicker.

Referral Report – Click on the “Referral Report” link, select the start and end date you want and then click the “refresh” button. Your information will display below, showing what type of website referrals have occurred for your business. Please note: this is a new feature and will not show a full report of any activity prior to February 1, 2009.

If you have any questions regarding the updates to our website, please feel free to contact me by phone at 760-722-1534 ext. 16 or email at scott@oceansidechamber.com.

We appreciate your support of the Chamber!

Sincerely,

Scott Ashton, Director of Sales & Marketing
Oceanside Chamber of Commerce

Free Military Family Event!

Woohoo for our military families!

What might I be talking about? I am referring to the upcoming 8th Annual Operation Appreciation on Saturday May 16th at the Oceanside Pier Amphitheater.

Operation Appreciation is Oceanside's way of saying THANK YOU to all of our military and their dependents.

I would like to invite all active duty military and their families to come down to the Oceanside Pier Amphitheater for a free lunch (we are talking delicious tri-tip sandwiches and the works), free carnival rides, face painting, kids activities, meeting your favorite San Diego Characters like Baby Shamu and the Pad Squad, running around on the beach with super cool military displays, and chowing down while watching entertainment on stage. Oh, did I mention all the fabulous sponsors who will be giving away free goodies and letting the military know about wonderful opportunities they have for them?

The festivities begin at 11 am, with food service going from 11:30 am - 2:30 pm. The children's area is open from 11 am - 5:00 pm.

What do you need to bring? Just an active duty military ID and you are set for a day of free fun down at the beach.

Can the public come too? Why yes of course! If you want to come down and show your support, their will be food available for purchase and you can purchase a wristband for unlimited rides for your kiddies too.

Need more info? Go to http://www.oceansideoperationappreciation.com/ for all event details!

See you at the Beach at Operation Appreciation!

Learning About Social Networking for Business

There is so much to learn when it comes to opportunities for promoting your business through social networking sites. The Chamber just recently started using these marketing mediums during the promotion of our recent North County Business Showcase. Thanks to the gracious support of Chamber members, Mark Baldwin of Aerlinks and Don Reedy of Prudential California Realty, the Chamber started a blog for our North County Business Showcase.

This not only allowed the Chamber to market the event, but also provided an avenue for our exhibitors to promote themselves before and after the Showcase.

The Chamber also has begun to use LinkedIn, Myspace, SDBackyard.com and others to promote our upcoming activities.

Are you interested in learning more about using online social networking sites to promote your business? On April 15th, the Chamber's LINK Luncheon will feature a presentation by Rhonda Sher, author of The Two Minute Networker. Rhonda's Presentation is titled “Get Linkedin or Left Out” Learn How to Use Linkedin.com to Effortlessly Attract More Customers, Clients and Referrals. Rhonda will share several of her best strategies to grow your business using offline person to person networking combined with the social networking of Linkedin.

More info is available at http://www.linkluncheon.com/.

Golf with a Hero Set for June 5th

The Oceanside Chamber's Annual "Golf with a Hero" event has been set for Friday, June 5th at the Marine Memorial Golf Course on Camp Pendleton.

This event provides an opportunity for local business and community leaders to treat a young Marine or Sailor to a round of golf while enjoying their company for a day.

This year, a portion of the event proceeds will benefit two local military charities, Camp Pendleton Armed Services YMCA and PatriotricHearts.org. More information is available on our website at www.GolfwithaHero.com.