Welcome to September, Chamber Members. This month is a busy one for the Chamber as we are working on preparing Candidate Endorsement Panels and all that comes with it. As most of you are aware, the Chamber advocates for our members and the business community politically at a state, county and local level. Each election cycle, we meet with candidates for open electoral seats and interview them along with a panel consisted of your peers, fellow business owners, and longevity Chamber Members to establish which candidate to endorse. We feel as if this is a necessary endeavor to protect our business community from further taxation or erroneous legislation that makes it harder to succeed and grow. This year, our endorsement panels will meet via Zoom on September 21 - September 24 (each evening) and will cover Lodi City Council, State Assembly, State Senate, San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors, San Joaquin Delta College Board of Trustees, and Lodi Unified School District Board members. And we need your help! If you are interested or available to sit on a panel to interview these candidates, please email PPatrick@LodiChamber.com to get on the list. 

In happy news, we have two longevity members to highlight today. The first being House of Clocks, who are celebrating FIFTY YEARS in business this Thursday, September 10. What an accomplishment this is- we are so incredibly proud of their dedication to not only their industry, but to Downtown Lodi as well. They will be having an outdoor, socially distanced celebration on Thursday from 4PM - 6PM with appetizers, sales, and drawings. The sales will go through the following week, and one VERY lucky customer will win a grandfather clock. Again, congratulations on this huge milestone.

The second member being Calivirgin Olive Oil- who just announced their win of a prestigious SOFI award. The SOFI (specialty outstanding food innovation) award celebrates excellence and creativity worldwide (over 2,000 entries in 2020 alone!). We have to say, this is an incredible feat and brings another stamp on Lodi's validation for wine & olive oil tourism. Congratulations to both House of Clocks and Calivirgin Olive Oil.