ORANGE COUNTY, CA—CREW-Orange County, the local chapter of the national organization focused on benefitting commercial real estate women, is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year. In reflecting back over the last 25 years, Angela Kralovec, a VP with BlackRock and 2015 president of CREW-OC, tells GlobeSt.com, “When CREW-Orange County was founded, it supported a handful of women in commercial real estate. Through the past two-and-a-half decades, the mission of supporting the advancement of women in commercial real estate remains the same, but with more than 150 Orange County members to benefit from both the local chapter and national organization. I'm honored to be the 2015 president of one of the premier real estate associations in the industry and celebrate this milestone event.”

We spoke exclusively with Terri Riker, president of Lee Ventures Realty and past president of CREW-OC, about the organization's accomplishments and what lies ahead for the iconic industry association.

GlobeSt.com: Can you tell us more about the organization and your members locally?

Riker: CREW's Orange County chapter is part of a national network of 72 chapters with more than 9.500 members throughout the US and Canada. Currently, our local chapter has 157 members and is open to men and women. The membership qualifications are one year of experience to become an associate member; full members require five years of experience. We are a welcoming organization with both emerging leaders and seasoned members. About 50% of our membership is composed of legal, title and escrow professionals; property management professionals; and brokerage. The remaining are construction, lending, accounting and finance, architecture and environmental.

We have a very active chapter with nine executive board members and a strategic board of 11 committees that report up to that board. Each one of those committees handles events, sponsorship, the SPIRE Awards, and each of those committee members is actively involved with the rest of the membership. We host a variety of events and member and non-member networking opportunities including eight to nine monthly luncheons a year, the annual summer party, the annual SPIRE CRE Awards, an annual golf tournament—although our 25^th-anniversary celebration took that slot this year—and a variety of smaller networking opportunities for members only to have a real in-depth connection with other members.

GlobeSt.com: What milestones has the local chapter achieved over these 25 years, and what is your focus for the next 25?

Riker: The mission of both the network and local chapters has been to influence the success of women in the commercial real estate industry. Our primary goal is to provide networking opportunities, which are very difficult to quantify. The milestones would be in creating these events and programming those educational and networking opportunities to further advance women in commercial real estate. The programs with which we work hand-in-hand with the network allow our membership to enjoy all the events we just talked about, which are now ongoing and successful networking and fundraising events.

One achievement has been the amount of money our chapter has raised for philanthropic organizations: our golf tournaments and summer parties have raised over $150,000 in total over the last 25 years, which is remarkable since our primary focus is not to be a philanthropic organization—it is to be an industry association.

We have also had substantial membership growth, starting with a handful of members to 157 good, quality, active members. Our networking events continue to be successful and have more of an impact on Orange County CRE implementation. Our members are accepting more speaking engagements and are high profile as a result of our organization. During the eight or nine luncheons we present each year, we provide speaking opportunities for three to five women at each event. Not only is this exposure to our network, but also non-members are helping to promote women in the industry.

Looking ahead, this particular chapter is focused on having a formal mentoring program. In the past, we've had an informal mentorship program, but now we're going to formalize this and draw from other chapters across the US that have been a success. This is a big initiative. We're also very focused on cultivating and really working with our emerging leaders. The emerging-leaders group within CREW is under 35 years of age, and we have made a good effort in reducing the initiation fees to help them build their careers and focus on events before and after work. Many don't have the flexibility that some of the seasoned members do to attend events during working hours. Kelly Gamble is heading up that group and has been active in coordinating events between the emerging leaders and the mentors.

We are also very focused on keeping our legacy of more-senior, seasoned real estate folks in the organization to draw from their prior experience. At a recent luncheon, 18 of the past 25 presidents showed up. That dovetails into our mentoring program. We have been active in making it as easy and affordable as possible for local chapters to attend events at a national level, and we offer scholarships for those committee members who are active to attend events with national.

GlobeSt.com: What has the response been to the SPIRE Awards—Orange County's only commercial real estate awards program, for which CREW is best known for launching—and what are your future plans for this program?

Riker: We will continue to hold these events, and we will probably have to move to a new venue because of the number of attendees. 2016 will be our 5^th year of holding the SPIRE Awards. We have had more than 200 attendees at each of the first four SPIRE Awards and as many as 310 in 2014. Three hundred fifty could be the maximum in this venue. We continue to solicit nominations, and we have recognized and publicized more than 200 nominees over the years. We will probably continue to have eight competitive categories and recognize a great philanthropic person in Orange County and a woman in business. We will continue with that model because it seems to be working and very well received and much needed in this area.

GlobeSt.com: As a commercial real estate organization that is focused on the advancement of women in the industry, what are you seeing as major trends affecting women in the industry today?

Riker: One of the major trends is that there are more opportunities now for women to be focused on both their work and home life without having to compromise either. I think our group of women in this chapter—and probably nationally—is very focused on balancing work/life demands and priorities. In a recent CREW benchmarking study, 92% of those respondents felt very or somewhat successful at achieving a work/life balance. Flex schedules and remote work are more prevalent. There are a good number of entrepreneurs in Orange County focusing on working smarter with more efficiency and less stress. These are key topics we are focusing on at the local and national level.

The gap between the number of men and the number of women in real estate is narrowing. That holds to our mission of facilitating the advancement of women within the industry. That is quantifiable. We have a solid organization of active, engaged and dynamic members who use the support of a successful network to further our mission.