A 2008 Gallup-Healthways poll, which ranked San Luis Obispo No. 1 in the U.S. in overall emotional health, sparked Beuttner’s interest in the small city.

In January 2010, he began to focus on what makes San Luis Obispo (SLO, to locals) so emotionally healthy.

“That’s when I got a phone call from Delta Sky Magazine editor Steve Marsh, who said he was coming to San Luis Obispo for a freelance project,” said Lindsey Miller, director of marketing for the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce. “I hadn’t worked with him before, but he called because he recognized the Chamber brand. Most good travel writers know that when they’re writing about a place they aren’t familiar with, the local Chamber of Commerce is a good place to start.”

The San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce announced a new job title for Whitney Diaz, previously the position of director of Internet services and publications. Her new title, director of new media and communications, more accurately reflects her expanding role at the Chamber. 

“In the time she’s been here, Whitney has dramatically increased the Chamber’s implementation of new media and helped us complete the Chamber’s transition to web-based member communications,” said Chamber President/CEO Dave Garth. “She has successfully helped bridge the gap between older and younger members, who expect us to communicate with them in different ways.”

Diaz writes and produces a variety of the Chamber’s quality communications pieces, coordinates the Chamber’s local public relations activities, and engages the Chamber’s audiences (staff, members, the community and media) by utilizing “new media,” which are interactive forms of communication that use the Internet, including video streaming, online surveys, RSS feeds, social networks, text messaging, blogs, wikis and more.

A rigorous selection and testing process has whittled down an initial group of 300 applicants for the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce president/CEO position to five semi-finalists.

Although the names of the semi-finalists will not be released, they are a diverse group with three women, two men, one local, two others from California and two from out of state.

“Chamber volunteers and members have a very clear vision of the kind of person we want in the role of president/CEO,” said Dave Juhnke, chair of the Selection Committee. “We’re looking for someone who has demonstrated leadership experience within a Chamber of Commerce or similar business-oriented membership organization, has a proven ability to grow a nonprofit organization, and has established an understanding of local and state political processes, with a proven effectiveness in lobbying and taking political action.”

On Friday, San Luis Obispo was again featured as America’s happiest town, but this time in one of America’s favorite newspapers – USA Today.

San Luis Obispo, or SLO to locals, was featured in the Life and Travel section of USA Today's April 8 issue and can also be seen on the publication’s website, complete with colorful photos and a fun video of Farmers’ Market and Bubblegum Alley.

The extensive USA Today article features several San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce members, including popular downtown restaurant Novo and local-favorite Apple Farm Inn, as well as Smiling Dog Yoga, EcoBambino, Sweet Earth Chocolate, and Wolff Vineyards Winery.

“It looks like our happy secret is out now,” jokes Lindsey Miller, director of marketing for the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce. “We’re so excited about all of the good press SLO has been getting. But, really, it’s no secret to the people who live in SLO that it’s the happiest place in the nation. We’ve known it all along. It just took the rest of the nation a while to catch on.”

San Luis Obispo County’s unemployment rate is on the decline, according to data released by Beacon Economics, a firm that provides economic analysis, consulting, and data services.

After the local unemployment rate increased steadily in the last half of 2010, it has started to decrease in the first months of 2011.

“This is excellent news for our community, but there are still a significant number of people and businesses struggling,” said Dave Garth, president/CEO of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce. “We hope this trend is the beginning of our local recovery. Fortunately, the local business community has proven itself to be a creative, energetic and progressive group, even in difficult times.”

SLO County’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate also decreased from 10 percent in February 2010 to 9.5 percent in February 2011.

The San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce has made it easier to promote its members online with its new Online Business Directory on www.slochamber.org.

Now, Chamber members each have their own webpage on www.slochamber.org with an opportunity to take advantage of a longer, more detailed description, a link to their website, and a link to Google Maps so anyone can find their location quickly and easily.

“This helps the Chamber by creating more than 1,400 extra pages on our website for search engines to index, which helps slochamber.org rise to the top of search results,” said Whitney Diaz, the Chamber’s director of Internet services and publications. “It also creates links to member sites, making them rise higher in search results for popular search engines, like Google, Yahoo! and Bing.”

The San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce released data on the salary and benefits of retiring President/CEO Dave Garth and the salary and benefits package being advertised for his replacement.
The data release comes in response to a request from Erik Baskin, president of the local San Luis Obispo Firefighters Association, the union representing non-management fire department employees.

The Chamber and the Firefighters Association are on opposite sides of the current binding arbitration controversy. Binding arbitration requires that salary, benefits and working condition disputes between the city of San Luis Obispo and the police and firefighter’s unions be resolved by an outside arbitrator, who is unelected and unaccountable to the voters. The arbitrator is not permitted to find middle ground between the two parties but instead must select between the last best offers from either side on every issue of contention.

The San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce employment poster sales ranked in the Top 5 of more than 140 chambers of commerce that sold the posters to businesses this year.

“We usually rank in the Top 25 in the state and, this year, we’re excited to be in the Top 5,” said Grace Allen, director of visitor services for the San Luis Obispo Chamber. Allen manages the sales and distribution of the employment posters for San Luis Obispo Chamber members.

Every employer must post a current 2011 California and Federal Employment Poster at their place of business. This is a mandatory law and not having the proper postings can result in more $17,000 in fines. In partnership with the CalChamber, the San Luis Obispo Chamber strives to be the business community’s one-stop shop for its HR compliance product needs.

In an effort to stay on the cutting edge of technology, the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce has just launched mobile versions of its three popular websites: Visitslo.com, SLOChamber.org and SLO-Business.com.

The mobile websites are live, but in a beta testing phase. Visitors, locals and anyone interested in the San Luis Obispo area can now search for information about local businesses and organizations on their mobile devices, including the iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

“It’s important to stay ahead of the technology curve,” said San Luis Obispo Chamber President/CEO Dave Garth. “These mobile websites are beneficial to our members as well as the community and people interested in finding out more information about San Luis Obispo through their smart phones.”