A new organization started by the Eau Claire Chamber of Commerce, 3625 Gateway Drive, seeks to give young professionals a start on their careers and keep graduates in the Eau Claire area.

“Right now there’s a big ‘brain drain’ in the Chippewa Valley,” senior Meghan Marine said.

Marine, a business management major and associate with Chamber members, attended the Sept. 18 kickoff event that started Young Professionals of Eau Claire. She became a member of the group as a way to reach her career goal.

“I want to own my own business,” she said.

Marine works at the Eau Claire Economic Development Corporation as a part-time intern and she also interns at Northwestern Mutual. She said Young Professionals will help her by getting more contacts at local businesses and meeting a broad range of people in business.

Marine said she hasn’t decided if she will stay in the Eau Claire area but has given it some thought.

“It depends on where the job market takes me,” she said.

Anyone over 21 and under 40 can be a young professional, said Katy Kiley, a staff assistant at the Eau Claire Chamber of Commerce. A subcommittee in the chamber of commerce developed the idea for the Young Professionals and Kiley has facilitated the group’s activities.

Chris Zeman, a senior marketing and managing entrepreneurship double major, had his own definition of a young professional.

“Someone young, determined, with the proper education and proper goals in life,” he said.

“I attended the meeting because it looked like an organization I wanted to be a part of,” Zeman said.

Zeman joined the organization immediately afterwards.

Marine said the benefits of networking include improving the quality of businesses coming into Eau Claire and getting associated with the job market in the area.

The problem is students graduate and either don’t know about local employment opportunities or don’t find many available positions at the time they graduate, Kiley said.

Though Kiley said only 100 people were expected to attend the kick-off event, about 225 people came to the gathering at the Plaza Hotel and Suites, 1202 W. Clairemont Ave.

Out of all the people who came, 11 were students. Kiley said most of the people who attended were from local businesses.

As an incentive to get more students in the group, Kiley said it costs $15 a year for a student membership, while it costs $75 for non-students who work for a company not associated with the Chamber of Commerce.

Kiley said business majors would be the most common in the group, but membership is open to students of all majors.

“I was pretty shy at the first meeting but did get a chance to meet with people from Luther-Midelfort,” Zeman said.

Not all activities will be meetings and seminars.

In the future, Kiley said the group has social activities, volunteer and community involvement activities planned.

For Zeman, Young Professionals gave him a chance to meet local professionals in an appropriate setting.

“I’m not a big fan of bars,” he said. “I like to meet people in a sober situation. That’s how you make a good contact and a good friendship.”