Under its new interim executive director Chuck Whitlock, the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is making some changes in its model.

The center has announced a membership drive and will transition to a model in which businesses and individuals that want to participate in CIE events and activities are charged a $30 yearly membership fee. Whitlock said he believes this fee will be affordable, adding that  the proceeds will help the CIE defray expenses for events offered to the business community.

For those who join before July 30, the initial $30 membership begins this month and continues until December 2016, according to an email from the CIE.

At the core of membership benefits, Whitlock said, is a series of 10 monthly events, each focused on a different topic, such as financing, legal considerations and sales and marketing strategies. He plans to bring in an expert to speak on each month’s topic, after which attendees can attend one of 10 breakout sessions. Each session will be facilitated by an expert in one facet of the month’s topic.

“These events will give our members real value,” Whitlock said Wednesday. “We’ll be bringing in outside speakers and taking advantage of the local talent we have. We have lots of wonderful business speakers here. We also want to take advantage of [UNCW] faculty.”

When Whitlock became the interim executive director in early June, he was told that the CIE had about 2,200 members. Digging deeper, however, he said he found that the “membership list” was simply a list of people who had attended one or more CIE events in the past.

“Their interest was more casual. Member was not the correct term,” Whitlock said. “I wanted to launch a real membership campaign. I decided to charge $30, which would allow members to come to our events and receptions for free.”

UNCW students and faculty members can join the CIE free of charge, but Whitlock is hoping that his new program focus will appeal to members of the business community who “simply want to grow and learn how to run their business leaner and meaner.”

Whitlock said he went to a recent Wilmington Chamber of Commerce event and introduced the center’s new membership model.

“A number of people signed up,” he said.

Rather than having 2,200 people with varying levels of interest in and commitment to the CIE, Whitlock continued, he is now offering businesspeople “educational opportunities at a very, very affordable price. Our purpose for being is to incubate and help businesses succeed. We’re not looking to make a profit; we’re looking to have a good solid impact on businesses and have our programs become self sustaining.”

In addition to hosting the program series, the CIE will continue to offer help and office space for startups, drawing from UNCW’s resources to help launch these fledgling businesses, Whitlock said.

“We’re really putting a big emphasis on mentoring,” he continued, adding that the center is forming a new advisory board made up of current and retired executives and other professionals who can work with both incubator tenants and existing businesses in the community.

“This will be on a larger scale than what has happened heretofore,” he said.

The advisory board, whose size will range from 15 to 25 people, according to Whitlock, will also represent a “good mix of skill sets and talent.”

“People don’t know what they don’t know,” he said. “If [young entrepreneurs] had the advantage of knowing what their more mature competitors know, they would have a greater chance of succeeding. The board can show them things before they ask, anticipate their needs before [the needs] become problems.”