The Ooltewah/Collegedale Chamber Council is trying to stimulate the local economy with its new Council Coffee series.
"The mission is to promote the economy and business activity in our community," said Council president-elect Suzanne Burrell. "It's really just an opportunity to meet other business owners. We wanted to come up with a strategy to have a face, a presence in Ooltewah as well, because we cover there as well."
Monthly general membership meetings are already held in Collegedale.
Sherri Morris and Frank Glover take in some coffee and conversation during the Ooltewah/Chamber Council's Chamber Coffee event, hosted the first Friday of every month. Morris works for PDQ Services and Glover lives and works in Ooltewah with local Geek Monkey computer and laptop repair.The morning coffee series takes place the first Friday of every month from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. in roving locations. The meetings are free to attend and open to the general public.
"It's attended by people from all over Hamilton County, not just our member businesses," said Burrell. "Anyone can attend. You don't even have to be a Chamber member."
Local businessman Eddie Wilkes said the contacts and networking opportunities he has made have already proven successful.
Each of the three events so far has been attended by 50 to 70 people, according to Jamie Kyle, who helped initiate the series.
"As soon as we made it known we were going to do this, we passed around a [host] sign-up sheet and it just filled up," Burrell said, adding they already have hosts through September.
There is a small fee to host the event, which will support other Chamber Council outreach and economic programs in the area. The host provides at least coffee, and any other refreshments they'd like.
Other than networking, there is no program or agenda, but the host has the right to make a presentation about their business.
There will likely be more community-inclusive events in the Ooltewah/Collegedale area, the fastest-growing portion of Hamilton County.
"One thing I noticed when I got here in Ooltewah is these are two separate communities, Collegedale and Ooltewah," Kyle said. "My whole goal was to start our own gig for the Chamber in Ooltewah, to where we can have it separate or join the board over [in Collegedale] to see if [Ooltewah] can get more integrated into the Ooltewah/Collegedale Council. Even though we had enough people to start a Chamber [Council], they can't afford having a new one."
Other Chamber Councils are already working on creating their own Council Coffee series, according to Burrell.