MONTGOMERY CO., Va. – When running a business, you want to know as much about your area as possible.
Every year, the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce hosts their Leadership New River Valley course to help leaders in the valley learn about the area.
“If you have any sense of community, this is exactly what you want,” said Austin DeVincent, a person who recently took the Leadership New River Valley course.
The annual class has been going on for over a decade.
On every third Thursday of every month, folks come to a class to hone their skills as leaders.
“Every month there is a topic that we kind of do a deep dive on,” said Marianne Washington, board member of the Chamber of Commerce. “Economic development, public safety, and there is always something that we are talking about and everything kind of goes back to that.”
She said folks who take this class grow so much throughout the year as leaders.
“It’s a good class to take in order to really understand our community, to be an advocate for the community itself and the community businesses but also understand some of the challenges,” Washington said.
Austin DeVincent moved to the area a few years ago and recently took the course. He said this class has helped him catch up on what he needs to know about the area to help him do his job.
He said that taking the course has helped him more than he expected.
“This just teaches individuals who have a sense of business, maturity, collaboration, who still want to be students of some kind, with the overall goal of making the community better,” said DeVincent.
Leaders with the Chamber of Commerce said there is still time to sign up if you want to participate.
You can find details of the course here.