For Rachael Romig, what began as a volunteer opportunity quickly grew into a passion for helping community and business leaders across the county. Rachael and her team at the Greater Reading Chamber Alliance were instrumental in providing education, networking and growth opportunities for Berks businesses throughout the pandemic, and now she’s turned her attention to new and innovative ways to maintain that creative momentum into the future.
Can you tell me a little bit about the Greater Reading Chamber Alliance?
The GRCA is a member organization with the mission to help our community’s businesses. We’re a little different than a chamber of commerce because we’ve brought together three different entities to create what we are, including economic development and bringing new business to the area, education and funding to expand existing businesses and our chamber piece, which aims to help the business community through membership.
What is some of the special programming that you oversee?
Our two special programs – Women2Women and the Family Business Alliance – were created to support large segments of our community. Family businesses make up a big part of our economy in Berks, so we wanted to focus attention on the particular needs they have. That’s what we’re doing with Women2Women as well. It’s a professional organization for women, but our real aim is to bring the whole community together to support women’s advancement and also to develop understanding for all cultural and orientation differences.
How did you get involved with the GRCA?
I’ve always been in corporate event planning, sales and marketing locally. A couple of years ago I was looking to volunteer in the community and joined the Youth Summer Reading Committee with Women2Women. I ended up kind of leading that group, and when a position as a Special Programs Coordinator with the GRCA opened up, I jumped on it. I loved the work they were doing with Women2Women, and as I learned more about what the GRCA did, I just couldn’t pass up that opportunity. During the pandemic I was offered the Senior Director position, which includes not only Women2Women – because I’ll never let that go! – but also incorporates the Family Business Alliance and all of the events of the GRCA as a whole.
So, it’s been quite a crazy year for you!
Oh yes. Through COVID we had to be very experimental and creative about how to continue our events and fundraising while also putting money back into the community and our members’ local businesses. We’re doing the same this year until we can meet in person again.
What are your goals as we transition back to “normal” life?
We’ve developed virtual and in-person opportunities to cover all of our bases, so we’re totally ready for whatever this year throws at us! We really want to get more member businesses involved, so we’re thinking outside the box and finding new ways to showcase them. We really want to be creative and develop experiences for our members, not just the normal chamber stuff. For now, we’re saying there are no rules. Our only goal is to keep people connected until we can physically be together.
