By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays Area Chamber of Commerce has welcomed two new employees, Nicole Ottley and Kara Berry.
Ottley is the programs coordinator. She started at the chamber in April.
She moved with her husband to Hays where they manage Mid Kansas Auto Auction. Ottley, 27, received a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Fort Hays State University in 2014 and most recently worked as the Youth Leadership and Community Development Specialist with Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland.
Ottley will be working with the Hays Area Young Professionals, Chamber Ambassadors Program and Leadership Hays. Ottley has been a member of HAYP and volunteer for the chamber for some time. She resigned a position as president of HAYP advisory council to take the paid position as programs coordinator. She said she is moving from a peer-to-peer role to a leadership or teacher role in the organization.
Through HAYP, Ottley will help college graduates and young adults in Hays network.
She said the greatest thing she has learned through HAYP is no networking is bad networking.
“You can’t be afraid of putting yourself out there,” she said. “We are all learning.”
Ottley said she didn’t know a soul when she first came to Hays, but HAYP helped her build professional and personal connections.
HAYP has a group email thread that allows its members to bounce ideas off each other and seek resources. Ottley gave the examples of someone looking for a person to sing the national anthem at an event and another person who was wanting feedback on a paragraph for a professional letter.
“We can take all of our experience and background and help people out,” she said.
As HAYP members grow in their skills and careers, they can become more involved in the Chamber in other ways, such as the Chamber Ambassador program.
HAYP and the Ambassador programs are strong, she said, and she is not planning any major changes at this time.
“Things are always evolving,” Ottley said. “We are always thinking ahead and keep evolving, and we know we have to be inclusive.”
Kara Berry, 29, has been named the membership coordinator for the Chamber. She started last Monday.
Berry is a 2006 graduate of Fort Hays State University and was last employed at FHSU in student fiscal services.
Berry and Tammy Wellbrock, chamber executive director, will be visiting chamber members and prospective chamber members to introduce Berry and to determine the needs of those members.
“I think it is good that I don’t know our limitations. If you have an idea, I want to make it happen. We’ll work with you,” Berry said. “I think I am coming into a strong office, and I want to work with the chamber to maintain it and become a part of it.”
Berry said she loves living in the community.
“I hope to treat the community as well as it has treated me,” she said.
Anyone interested in becoming a chamber member or participating in HAYP, Chamber Ambassadors or Leadership Hays, can contact the chamber at 785-628-8201 or [email protected].