As we continue to move through this difficult year, many of us have agreed that you have to look for positives in the negative economy.

I found myself looking out on one of those positives on September 10th when the Yuba-Sutter Chamber of Commerce hosted its 1st annual Chamberopoly event at the Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds. The event was a hit, we had many positive comments and 300-350 people attended. There were 10 caterers with superb food and two members offering wine tasting. The fairgrounds again hosted the event, sponsors stepped up to help provide the cash prizes and almost 70 Chamber members provided baskets for the drawing prizes.

The event was a clear sign that while times are tough we are also continuing to embrace and support these community events that keep businesses such as your Chamber up and running. It's true that many events have felt the pinch of the economy and some events have been postponed, cancelled or revamped to keep up with the times, including here at the Chamber.

In fact, that's how Chamberopoly came to be in the first place. Many of us had discussed what to do for this year's event and we quickly agreed that it was becoming cost prohibitive for people to participate as actively as they have in the past. We also noted that if something stays the same for more than 5 years, people begin to look for other events to attend.

So a small but mighty committee quickly formed and they enthusiastically started throwing ideas around. There seemed to be more and more ideas as each new idea took shape. The result was the 1st annual Chamberopoly. Sure, there were glitches, but we quickly learned what we could do better.

A follow up meeting after the event was very positive and many new ideas for improving Chamberopoly were discussed.

The first positive point that I want to make is that the down economy forced us to look at an event we had been doing for years and ask ourselves how we could do it better. The second positive point is that a group of committed Chamber volunteers stepped up to make that new idea take shape. And, the third positive point is that Chamber members endorsed the idea and added the final support to make Chamberopoly happen.

Yes, we live in a difficult economy. But it seems apparent that there are more than enough people out there who want to keep moving forward and make good things happen in the Yuba-Sutter area.

A sincere thank you is sent to every person who contributed to Chamberopoly, and thus their Chamber, to create another Yuba-Sutter success story.