San Marcos Has a Class for the Job Nobody Trained You For |
The Chamber gives AI one morning—and the stubbornly human side of leadership the other four. |
Imagine the promotion arrives Friday.
By Monday, you have a team.
Congratulations.
Apparently, doing your job well also qualified you to earn trust, settle conflicts, run meetings and persuade other humans before coffee.
The San Marcos Chamber of Commerce has another idea:
Actual training.
Its Fall 2026 Leadership Development Program meets for five consecutive Tuesdays, Oct. 6 through Nov. 3, from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m.
Classes will be held at Union Cowork, 251 North City Drive, Suite 128F, in San Marcos.
That is 15 scheduled hours devoted to the part of a promotion nobody squeezed into the congratulatory email.
Doing the work is one skill.
Leading the people who do it is another.
AI Gets One Tuesday
The program opens Oct. 6 with Building Trust.
Persuasive Leadership follows Oct. 13.
Then technology enters the meeting.
The Oct. 20 session is Leveraging Technology: AI as a Leadership Skill. Conflict Resolution takes over Oct. 27, followed by Collaborative Leadership on Nov. 3.
AI gets the fashionable seat.
Humans still occupy most of the table.
Four of the five sessions center on trust, influence, disagreement and cooperation—the workplace problems no software update has managed to delete.
The Chamber describes the program as interactive and hands-on. Its stated goals include strengthening communication skills, leading meetings and teams, negotiating collaboratively and helping employees transition into leadership.
Useful targets.
Not magic tricks.
Leadership does not come with a five-Tuesday warranty.
The Idea Survived Its Trial Run
A Chamber-supplied 2024 account says its Leadership Committee was formed the previous year and first offered workshops on collaborative, cultural and conscious leadership.
The full five-week program launched in October 2024.
By March 2026, the Chamber was starting what CEO Rick Rungaitis identified as its fourth cohort. Its current program page also recognizes graduates of that spring class and publishes testimonials from previous participants.
This is no longer a one-class experiment.
San Marcos keeps bringing it back.
Richard Marks chairs the Leadership Program Committee.
He is the founder and president of RDM Management Group, a professional-development, sales and leadership-training company. His company identifies him as an Army veteran, author, speaker and performance coach with approximately 30 years of business and sales experience.
The Chamber has not publicly identified who will teach each Fall session.
Apparently, at least one leadership question remains unanswered.
Leadership Has a Cover Charge
Registration costs $495 for San Marcos Chamber members and $695 at the published nonmember rate.
That works out to $33 per scheduled hour for members and about $46 per hour for nonmembers.
The Chamber says participants who successfully complete the entire program will receive a Certificate of Completion from Cal State San Marcos Extended Learning.
Its public pages do not define successful completion or advertise academic credit or continuing-education units.
Parking validation will be available. Because future leaders have enough conflicts to resolve without starting the morning against a parking kiosk.
Questions You May Have About the Chamber AI Program:
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I wish the price was lower, but the practical sessions actually seem worth it. Hopefully they’ll share some tips or materials after, too.
Love that they focus more on people skills than just tech. It’s true, being the best worker is not the same as knowing how to manage a team.
Lisa M.Totally agree, Lisa! I’ve seen so many great workers promoted, then struggle with the people side. It’s nice to see that getting more attention in San Marcos now.