News from Mountain View Chamber of Commerce

Silicon Valley's World-Class Art & Music Festival celebrates its 40th birthday with 600 professional artists and craftmakers showing exceptional handcrafted wares, stellar live music on stage and street throughout downtown with headliners The Groove Kings, The Houserockers, Cream of Clapton and Department of Rock, the Comcast Pigskin Party Lounge with giant screen TV, festive food and drink with premium wines, microbrews, sangria, mojitos and margaritas, artisan specialty food purveyors, an organic and green products showcase, health and wellness displays, home and garden exhibits, the cool new... read more

Welcome Manuel Martinez, Newest Member of the Chamber Staff

The Chamber of Commerce Mountain View is happy to introduce our new Membership Resource Manager, Manuel Martinez. "Mannie" started August 1st and seems to be fitting in quite well. He's already familiar with Mountain View since he spent part of his childhood here and his grandmother still lives in Mountain View. He has many fond memories of our city, including one special 4th of July many years ago when he was allowed to sit on top of the carport of the apartment complex where his family lived and watch the Blue Angels fly overhead.

Mannie has a bachelor's degree in Political Science from San Francisco State University and hopes to eventually... more about Mannie

Mountain View Art & Wine Festival - Honoring 40 Years of Tradition, Embracing New Technology

The Mountain View Chamber of Commerce will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its Art & Wine Festival this year on Sept 10 & 11, 2011, from 10am to 6pm. There will be a special 10-year remembrance ceremony at the festival to honor the heroes from 9/11.

Over the past 40 years, the Mountain View Art & Wine festival evolved from a small street faire, just a few blocks long, to one of the country's largest art festivals. Each year the community looks forward to many traditional aspects of the festival, including live bands, a wide variety of wine and beer, an outstanding selection of food vendors, and over 600 artists featuring fine arts, handmade jewelry and accessories, one-of-a-kind clothing, and more. This year the festival will be using innovative new technology from several Silicon Valley start-ups to make the weekend activities more enjoyable and... more

Providing Opportunities for Relationship Building

Art & Wine Appreciation Party

Wednesday, September 14, 2011-- 5pm - 7pm

Location: Shoreline Amphitheatre - Lucky's Bar - 1 Amphitheatre Way, Mountain View

Come mingle with fellow Chamber members & Art & Wine Volunteers at this month's special appreciation party/mixer.

Cost: FREE for Festival Volunteers and $5 for their guests. $5 for chamber members; $10 non-members.

YIP-toberfest Mixer @ Tied House

Thursday, September 22, 2011 -- 5pm - 7pm

Location: Tied House - 954 Villa Street, Mountain View

Join us for our 3rd Annual Yiptoberfest, at Tied House Brewery.

Celebrate Fall with beer, sausage, and revelry. We'll download the Ohmpa music to rock out to (or tuba out to as the case may be) and you wear your Lederhosen or Dimdl! Let's make this year the biggest, baddest, best time yet. Prost...Ziggy Zaggy Ziggy Zaggy, oy oy oy!

Brought to you by:

RSVP Now

Build Your Business By Generating Professional Business Leads

Business ConneXions: Wednesday Group meets weekly, 3 - 4pm, in the meeting room at East West Bookstore, 324 Castro St., Mountain View. For more information about this group, please contact: Tawnya Anderson - one2bhold@sbcglobal.net.

Business ConneXions: Thursday Group meets weekly, 8:15 - 9:15am at the Clocktower Coffee conference room located at 425 N. Whisman Rd., Mountain View. Guests are welcome to attend any meeting two times for free! For more information about this group, please contact: Lauren Liebert - ticket2travel@gmail.com or Eliza Snow - leez@lightstylephoto.com

Promoting the Community

Leadership Mountain View is accepting applications for the Class of 2012

LMV is open to all individuals eighteen years and older. Applicants must be residents of Mountain View, representatives of Mountain View based businesses or organizations, or otherwise active in the Mountain View Community. Applicants in final consideration will be personally interviewed.

Completed application and a letter of recommendation must be received by August 19,2011... read more

Ambassador of the Month: George Cohn

George is a co-founder of Creation Ground Media, an award winning full service video production company serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Our corporate videos create a bond that engages your audience and delivers your value proposition unforgettably. Creation Ground Media has been a member of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce since 2006, and George was... read more

Want to Volunteer?

Mountain View loves start-ups! GoVoluntr is a new start-up that connects people in the community with non-profits that need volunteers. It's an online social network that you and your friends can use to find places to volunteer. It's always more fun to get involved in the community when you do it with your friends. You can share your activities on other social networking sites. Find a worthy cause on GoVoluntr and tell your Facebook friends so everyone can get involved. The website tracks your... read more

Creating a Strong Local Economy

Air Service to Tokyo Survey

All Nippon Airways (ANA) of Japan is considering establishing a Tokyo-San Jose flight. ANA is a partner of United Airlines in the STAR Alliance and the two airlines have the authority to operate as joint venture partners for U.S.-Japan flights. This will allow members of United's frequent flyer program to earn mileage on United when traveling to Japan on ANA.

A flight would once again connect San Jose/Silicon Valley with one of our largest trade and investment partners. San Jose-Tokyo air service would provide the business community with easy access to Tokyo and destinations throughout Asia, enhance opportunities to ship products to customers, and foster economic growth for the regional economy.

As business support is critical to the establishment of air service, particularly international flights, the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce seeks your assistance in completing the attached nine-question survey. Your input will be very helpful to efforts to bring ANA to Silicon Valley. Click here to complete this brief survey.

Fenwick's Corner: In Two Recent Decisions, California Appellate Courts Refuse to Honor Employment Arbitration Agreements

Last month the California Courts of Appeal issued two separate decisions denying employers' attempts to compel arbitration agreements on the grounds that such agreements were unenforceable. For employers, these cases underscore the importance of reviewing mandatory arbitration agreements to ensure that they meet strict legal requirements, as the courts will closely examine such agreements to ensure that employees' rights are being adequately protected... read more

New Credit Card Payment Reporting to IRS

You may be interested in IRS Form 1099-K if your customers pay for goods and services using a credit card or Paypal account. In August, the regulations for Internal Revenue Code Section 6050W were finalized. The regulations state that beginning in 2011 "payment settlement entities" such as debit/credit card companies and online payment processors (i.e. PayPal, Google Checkout, Amazon) must report to the IRS payments made in the settlement of reportable payment transactions that annually exceed $20,000 and 200 transactions. The "payee" can be... read more

Member News

Mountain View Voice Best of 2011 Winners

Congratulations to Chamber members awarded by the Mountain View Voice as Best of 2011!

Allure - Best Hair Salon

Amici's East Coast Pizzeria - Best Pizza

Cantankerous Fish - Best Seafood

Car Doctor - Best Oil Change

Click here to view list

Spare the Air Program Celebrates 20 Years

This summer the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's (the Air District) Spare the Air program celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Over the last 20 years, the Air District created awareness of air quality issues through Spare the Air alerts. Today, more than 100,000 Bay Area residents receive e-mail alerts notifying them when air quality is forecasted to reach unhealthy levels. These notices also offer tips on how to avoid activities that contribute to air pollution... read more

Sincerely,

Chamber of Commerce Mountain View

The Chamber of Commerce Mountain View is a business organization working for the mutual benefit of its members and the community by enhancing an environment in which business can succeed.