At its recent annual meeting in San Francisco, Ritchie made several announcements, foremost of which is that the company has joined the CORE Network, a 20-city organization of service providers that serves the office, industrial, and retail sectors. CORE affiliates did over $5 billion in U.S. transaction business last year, and has activities in Canada, Mexico, Asia, and Europe as well.

Mr. Ritchie's top producers, which he calls his 20/20 Club, was also touted, and includes David Becker and David Cebalo of San Francisco/Oakland, and Steve Botto, Pat Cisneros, Egan Kingston, Julie Mercik, Gary Seiden, and Geri Wong of the San Jose office. In fact, Ms. Cisneros received a promotion to Senior Vice President of the San Jose group. "Pat is a star; she has been in the business for 25 years, is a community leader, an unbelievably hard worker, and has an incredibly loyal client base. We intend to keep her around," said Mr. Ritchie. Last year the 20/20 Club was involved in 334 transactions worth $260 million.

Another source of pride cited at RitchieFest is the company's Community Fund, which will contribute over $53,000 to charitable and community organizations this year, based on a percentage of profits from 2000 performance. Past recipients include Battered Women's Alternative, the Leukemia Society, and History San Jose.