W KEITH MOORE
Chamber Board Chairman
ho would have imagined that on midnight, December 31st, 2019, the new year 2020 would have taken the turn it did? Prior to 2020, none of us really knew anything about Zoom, but we held virtual meetings, cocktails hours and seminars via Zoom. That wearing a face covering, working from home and e-learning for children would become the standard. I dare not say the “new normal,” because at some point we will return to the old normal. During this time, our small businesses have struggled with all the new regulations enacted on them by state government, determining if they were essential or not, raw material and inventory shortages. Many businesses changed their operation models overnight to provide our local communities the needed supplies and essential items. Many restaurants turned in to your local market as the large retailers ran out of various items like toilet paper and basic food items. Our restaurants opened their doors to sell the items they had realizing they would not be open for a few weeks; many turned to making face coverings, some hand sanitizer, and the list goes on. During this time, your chamber jumped in with both feet. Angie and Shayna started the Facebook group, “Supporting Small Business in Kendall County.” They had countless meetings with local officials to aide our businesses in navigating new regulations that changed almost daily, worked on PPE and EDIL loans for the chamber, offered guidance for our
local businesses and secured a grant from ComEd. As soon it was safe to do so, they got the chamber office open to our members. During times of the civil unrest in the spring, we worked with village officials to utilize our text messaging systems to send out local updates during that time, becoming the voice of Oswego. We officially organized our new emergency volunteer program, Oswego Chambers Cares, assisting our local downtown business board. Our community came together – some donated materials, others donated their time. We had the opportunity to be a little normal – we held our annual golf outing and we held our annual dinner and combined it with our new member dinner in September. We were able to recognize our local businesses and individuals making a difference and celebrate those that had anniversary milestones in the chamber. We had several Business After Business and Coffee with the Chamber events. Best of all, we added several new members to the chamber with several ribbon cuttings. In August, we updated the chamber’s conference room with two new 55” TVs with wireless connections for presentations. This room is available to all of our members for meetings. In closing this year, more than any other, we need to make sure we are supporting local; our businesses need your support.
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