With just a few months into 2025, there’s a lot going on in ReMA’s regions and chapters from exciting events to increased engagement and transparency through a new ReMA chapter portal.
According to Lacey Capps, ReMA’s director of chapter relations, ReMA chapters and regions are working to diversify the types of experiences and event offerings.
“We’re seeing some fresh ideas and collaborations,” she said. “The Northern Ohio chapter kicked off the year with an open house in which they encouraged members to bring nonmembers. It was free for nonmembers and a great first look at what ReMA and the chapter have to offer for potential members.”
In April, ReMA’s Southeast region is hosting “Clays for College” Sporting Clays Tournament—an inaugural scholarship fundraiser for the Abe Brenner and Ken Iverson College Scholarship Fund.
“The chapter hopes that it will be a success and serve as a formula or model that other chapters can use to benefit their respective scholarships,” Capps said.
Toward the end of the year ReMA’s New England Chapter is planning a new Chowder Cup Summit in November. The goal of the networking event is to not only serve local members but also draw participation from members across other regions. The two-day event will include educational workshops as well as activities and tours to complement the workshops and provide additional engagement opportunities.
“We’re also seeing an increase in chapters doing booth swaps and partnering with other industry events to help with general exposure and member recruitment,” Capps said. “I find that I’m frequently adding new events to the ReMA website, so this year is shaping up to be a busy one.”
Amid this busy 2025-2026 schedule, ReMA is planning digital updates and improvements to better assist chapter leadership in their volunteer work.
“We’re starting work on the chapter portal, a one-stop shop for chapter leaders to access important resources and reporting that supports the operations,” Capps said. “Our chapter and regional needs have changed drastically over the years and our volunteer leaders need easy and fast access to resources on demand.”
The chapter portal will help streamline operations, when possible, to ease the burden on volunteers and elevate chapter leaders’ onboarding experiences because they will be able to go to one webpage to find necessary resources and materials for overseeing their chapter or region.
ReMA is also upgrading its chapter webpages as part of its rebrand. According to Capps, members can look forward to increased accessibility, fresh content, and an elevated look and feel for the webpages to help users access important state resources and contact information for chapter leadership and commodities.
The webpage upgrades and inviting events all serve to forward the larger goals of increased member and volunteer engagement and retention.
Regional engagement is often the first point of entry for new members and ReMA’s chapter networks can expand relationships, make introductions, and share the importance and value of membership. At the same time, volunteer leaders have day jobs and the responsibility of running a region or chapter is, necessarily, secondary.
“That’s why ReMA is working to lighten the load of our chapter leaders by working smarter and more efficiently,” Capps said.
Recently, ReMA implemented a monthly chapter prospecting report that we share with the leadership. The quarterly report includes our renewals and a breakdown of potential new members that ReMA’s membership team is working on for each respective chapter or region.
“We’re working to encourage transparent communication and increase collaboration between ReMA membership and ReMA’s chapter and regional leaders,” Capps said. “We know that we can have a greater reach and impact when our collective efforts are aligned. We’re hoping that we can focus on relationship building and trust and through that work in turn provide engaging and inviting opportunities, events, and information for our chapters.”
