Several members gathered Wednesday morning at The Highlands Events Center for an informational session about the new program offered through the Chamber. The initiative, which has been in the development phase for months, aims to educate business owners in four main areas: leadership, marketing and communications, sales, and business and human resources.

Each of these cohorts will consist of eight classes that will take place in the morning before the start of the typical work day, with the first class expected to start in mid-September. Each class will be 45 minutes to one hour in length, and each cohort will have an honorary “dean” who will oversee the programming and educational content. The “dean” in each cohort will also serve as the top advisor for that particular topic.

The four “deans” for the inaugural Chamber U year and their topics will be: Mike McCormick, Leadership; Laurie Conway, Marketing and Communications; Mike Howard, Sales; and Zach Abraham, Business and Human Resources.

On Wednesday, Howard noted that Chamber U is a great opportunity for current and future Chamber members.

“It’s a member benefit, ultimately,” Howard said. “We want to take our membership to the next level. For those that don’t belong yet and hopefully will in the future, this might be an incentive.”

The program is not only for members, but also by Chamber members.

“A lot of our members now will be leading the classes each month and the different cohorts,” Howard said. “We’re just kind of playing the organizer to put it all together. We’ll teach some classes ourselves, too, and we’ll have a few people from outside the area.

“It’s really to help businesses grow and train their people that are members of the Wheeling Chamber.”

The intended audience for Chamber U is wide-ranging, from business owners to employees who have the potential for future leadership and development. Classes will take place one time per month on Tuesday mornings from 7:30-8:15 a.m. at the West Liberty University Highlands location, which has available classroom space. The projected timeline for the first year of Chamber U is mid-September through early December, followed after a holiday break with additional sessions from February through May, concluding before a summer break similar to a traditional school year.

“It’s going to be a work in progress,” Howard said. “As we get feedback, we’ll see what for next year we can change, modify or repeat. But it will be a unique opportunity to allow our member organizations to train, learn and network together, and quite frankly teach each other,” Howard said.

Information about Chamber U will be available on the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce website, and registration is expected to be available on the site by Sept. 1.

“We really wanted it to be a peer-to-peer learning opportunity, because a lot of these business owners don’t necessarily want to do a classroom setting or don’t feel comfortable in a very formal setting,” Conway explained. “So we really wanted it to be peer-to-peer — with somebody you can relate to as a business owner talking about struggles that you have, that I might have or have had in the past and how I got through them.

“It’s kind of like when you go to school and take classes, but then you do an internship and you talk to people who are really in that field who really understand the real-life and real-world problems that people are facing.”

Those interested in participating in Chamber U can do so for the entire year. Members will also be able to jump in at any time during the year and participate in the scheduled classes.

Cohorts will be available at a member rate, which includes tuition for eight classes. Non-members can also take part in the eight class sessions at a non-member rate. Scholarship incentives for new and existing members will be available by calling Howard at 304-312-1048 or by emailing mhoward@wheelingchamber.com.

Chamber members enjoy a number of annual benefits, events and networking opportunities throughout the year, In addition to Chamber U, the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce is busy finalizing its Sept. 15 golf scramble, its Economic Outlook Conference on Oct. 20, the 39^th annual college fair on Oct. 26 and the Wheeling Christmas Parade on Nov. 18.

The Chamber also recently launched The Network Cafe, an additional opportunity outside of the monthly business after hours events that allows members to get together for coffee or lunch to share what is happening in their business.

For more information on the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce, its events or Chamber U, visit www.wheelingchamber.com or the Chamber’s official Facebook page.