BECOMING A MEMBER OF RAM IS ONE OF THE BEST DECISIONS YOU CAN MAKE FOR YOUR BUSINESS.
By joining you gain access to exclusive, money saving discounts on services and programs, legislative updates and advocacy as well as valuable educational opportunities. We aim to help you grow and protect your business, promote the retail industry and save your business money. Click here to JOIN NOW!
2024 RAM Awards of Excellence Winners
Craft Food Halls
Creative Concepts in Retailing
BANTER Barber & Clothier
Innovator of the Year
Bean Restaurant Group
Restaurant of the Year
An Unlikely Story
Retailer of the Year
West End Creamery
Retail Hall of Fame
Thank you to AM Creative and Jon Almas for creating our winner videos.
UPDATE: Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting DELAYED
On December 3rd, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted a nationwide injunction barring the enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), including its Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting requirement. As discussed in the RAM advisory issued earlier in the week, the Act’s reporting deadline had been set for January 1, 2025.
Under the federal court order, companies do not need to comply with the CTA’s reporting requirements at this time, pending further order of the Court. Please note that the order is not a final decision, so companies should remain prepared to comply with the CTA reporting requirements in the event the injunction is lifted or the requirements are reinstated as the case proceeds. At this time it remains unknown whether the Department of Justice intends to appeal the order—a process that would take months.
RAM will continue to monitor this situation for new development and provide Members with updates as they become available.
Click here for benefits summary.
2023-24 MA Legislative Session Ends,
New 2025-26 Legislature Sworn In
The MA Senate and House of Representatives closed out 2024 with a flurry of activity, completing work on a host of bills before adjourning for the final time in the early morning hours on December 31st. Governor Maura Healey now has the final say on more than one hundred bills on her desk that she may sign, veto, or pocket veto. The Governor has until January 9th or 10th to act on the latest batch of bills.
Click here to see legislation of interest to RAM members currently under the Governor’s review.
RAMHIC Offerings for 2025
RAMHIC continues to partner with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts to offer members access to the carrier's entire portfolio of high quality, small group health insurance plans.
All members purchasing their health insurance coverage through the cooperative will also receive an expanded list of ancillary benefits, FREE of charge.
Click image above to view a BCBS produced informational video on the power of the RAM/BCBS Cooperative.
Please see our brochure for more detail on the expanded benefit package. Specific information regarding each benefit may be found below:
For more information please visit the RAMHIC page of our website.
We are excited to announce we have enhanced our Multiple Employer 401k (MEP) program. Available only to our members, we have a new partner, Transamerica Retirement Services. Transamerica is an industry leader in retirement plan marketplace and an expert in Multiple Employer 401k Retirement Plans.
In addition to Transamerica, you also have professional fiduciary investment management provided by Atlas Fiduciary Services, Inc., and outsourced fiduciary plan administration through Atlas Pension Administrators Inc. All of this and you can work with an advisor of your choice.
Adopting members will experience:
- Fewer plan administration duties
- Reduced fiduciary liability
- Streamlined costs.
- Flexible plan design
- Online account management
- Employee education and communication support
Now has never been a better time to set up a new 401k plan for your business! The federal government has tremendous tax credits for newly established plan, virtually making the prospects of offering a plan free.
If you already have a plan, a quick evaluation can help determine what your saving might be under our MEP 401k plan with our complementary benchmark analysis.
Attention RAM Cannabis Members!
Cannabis Control Commission Eliminates “Two-driver” Rule
At a meeting on Wednesday, October 30th, the MA Cannabis Control Commission approved final regulations that will ease the burden on consumer cannabis delivery companies and the transport of marijuana products for testing purposes, by eliminating the “two-driver” rule that had added unnecessary costs to the delivery process.
The changes to 935 CMR 500.00 and 935 CMR 501.00 modify the requirements to allow the delivery of marijuana and marijuana products to consumers and patients with one agent (driver) in a vehicle at a time, provided that the total retail value of all products in the vehicle is less than $5,000. For delivery or transport of product valued between $5,000 and $10,000, the two-agent requirement will remain in effect.
The regulations will take effect on November 22nd.
Gov. Healey Announces Signing of $3.9B Economic Development Bond Bill in Speech to RAM Annual Meeting
The MA House and Senate met in rare post-election Formal Sessions in mid November to give final approval to conference committee reports on the Economic Development Bond bill (H.5100)and the Omnibus Energy and Climate bill (S.2967) – two major bills that saw negotiations extend beyond this summer and into the fall. Governor Maura Healey signed the Economic Development bill into law last month, and then announced the signing an hour later in her speech to the RAM Annual Meeting. The Energy and Climate bill was signed into law later that evening.
RAM members in attendance at the meeting thanked the Governor for her efforts in promoting these important initiatives and applauded the passage of both bills.
Click here to view policy items of interest to RAM members in the Economic Development bill and Omnibus Energy & Climate Bill.
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