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<p>Nancy Heer opens the door to Umpqua Bank's empty office. It's an hour before opening time and the place is deserted, save one or two colleagues arriving early. </p><p>Heer enters Umpqua's empty conference room and takes a seat. An oblong table, at least 15 feet in length, is the main feature, with high-backed, leather chairs situated around it. Heer feels right at home - her petite stature not overpowered by the table and chairs. As a vice president and commercial lending officer at the Portland-based bank, she exudes power - but she doesn't flaunt it.</p><p>Heer moved to Portland 15 years ago, spending a decade with Bank of America. She moved over to Umpqua Bank five years ago, which is when she first joined the Portland chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW). </p><p>I had two wonderful mentors, she recalls. Barbara Hobson and Carol Bentley, she says, both colleagues at Bank of America, introduced her to CREW during her first years in Portland. Heer volunteered, became chairwoman of the group's Golf Committee and then eventually moved up to the status of board member and national delegate. Now, as president, she heads a 115-plus-member organization whose mission is to support the advancement of women, yet also welcomes men into the mix.</p><p>DJC: Would you say that CREW is mainly a networking group?</p><p>Nancy Heer: It is a networking group on a national level. Certainly, it is on a local level, but also tied into that we look at serving our community. How can we, while we're achieving our own goals and following our mission, serve the community?</p><p>We do that with an annual charity event, and we're already getting ready for our next event, which is in about four weeks, Take Our Students to Work Day. We'd like to expand and make it much larger, to involve more students, but that event is very special. </p><p>In fact, we established this event prior to the CREW Network (CREW's national organization) establishing it. The network does something similar now, but their main theme is working with girls. It's more of a career day, whereas ours is more focused on real estate with boys and girls, trying to get them involved in the industry.</ p><p>DJC: CREW started out as a group to lend opportunities to women. Here in Portland, CREW has male and female members. When did that start and what was the impetus to include men in CREW?</ p><p>Heer: When the local chapter started in 1992, it was called WIC, Women in Commercial Real Estate. At that time, it was comprised of eight women. It has grown pretty rapidly since then, and I think it was back in the fourth year that they actually had a man join.</ p><p>The women who started the organization realized that this is a group to support and provide education and advancement of women in commercial real estate. At the same time, there was corroboration that was needed, and they saw that men should have the opportunity also. This is such a good program and such a good organization that men can certainly benefit from it also. They benefit from it and are also good sources for networking.</p><p>DJC: Is it like that in other chapters around the United States, or is Portland unique in that way?</p><p>Heer: There are 56 chapters across the country and internationally. We have chapters in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, and most chapters do have men that can participate.</ p><p>I think it's very similar across the country; anywhere from 3 percent to 12 percent of chapter membership are men. There's a wide degree of variance, but that pertains to how it's promoted.</ p><p>DJC: Here in Portland, what's the ratio?</p><p>Heer: We have about 10 percent.</p><p>DJC: It brings up an interesting conundrum: When a group for real estate women decides to invite men, does CREW become just another Institute for Real Estate Management or National Association of Industrial and Office Properties? How is it different from other groups that are around?</p><p>Heer: I think that the main difference is that our mission statement is to advance the success of women in real estate. That is our mission. All of our events, all of our workshops, are developed with that in mind. We welcome men and we don't want to be associated as a group that wants to exclude men from the opportunities that we receive and from the benefits of our luncheon programs. </p><p>A lot of men attend those programs because they're educational and informative. We try to capture what's happening now in the Portland metro area. That's for everybody.</p><p>If we can include men also, then they can better understand our organization and realize that there are many women in the commercial real estate industry. </p><p>We do a great job in a lot of high-profile fields, and we're very professional women and we can get the job done. We want to be included more in networking.</ p><p>DJC: So, it's a mutual benefit for men, too?</p><p>Heer: Right. It opens up their avenues and it provides a way for us to help each other and provides a platform for men and women to see what each other's talents are and to realize that we are very influential in the commercial real estate industry. There are more and more women in this industry, and we do significant deals. </p><p>Last year, just within our local chapter, we had over $70 million worth of transactions that we had referred to each other. And those are just deals that were reported to us for our networking awards. I'm sure there's a much larger amount of deals that we didn't know about.</ p><p>DJC: It's an interesting subject, the gender issues that are inherent in a group like this. Is there a stigma for men to be in a group for women, to join a group that's for women?</p><p>Heer: That's probably one question that J.C. Kootnekoff (CREW member and commercial account manager at Ticor Title) could answer. He's been on our board for two years, and he's been very involved.</ p><p>There are two other men that are involved in other committees, and I think they find it very rewarding and find that women are very open with their comments, as far as how to help each other, how to make a situation better. If someone's having a dilemma, (women are) very willing to share: Here's what I've learned. Here are some mistakes that I made when I did a deal like that, and this is how I made it better for my client. </p><p>So there's very much open dialogue, where women are willing to share ideas and any mistakes that have been made so another person doesn't make them.</p><p>I think maybe men are not so open with sharing information or giving people contacts to help them with certain aspects of a deal. I think the men recognize that, and they like the fact that (women) are more willing to share.</p><p>Women are very much into connecting with one another and doing whatever they can to support individuals to help them with their projects. I think that's what the men see who are involved with CREW.</p><p>I can't speak to the stigma of why more men aren't involved. Maybe they do see it as just a women's organization. But the men that do come to our lunches know that it's much more than that.</p><p>DJC: Do you hear from real estate women in CREW that they're women in a man's world, or is that an outdated assumption?</p><p>Heer: I think I may hear that on a more national level.</p><p>We just did a survey on a national level. (The survey found that men earn more than women at comparable levels of experience and age.) It was very interesting and enlightening, and still we have a long way to go as far as having equal opportunity to earn the same pay and advancement opportunities. I think that this offers education, that both men and women are very enlightened for having that information.</p><p>One of the survey questions asked the men, Do you know that this is the difference in pay scale for a woman doing the exact same job as you are? And a large percentage of men didn't realize that there was even a difference. It was very surprising. </p><p>I think here in Portland, it's a different situation. I don't think that the general consensus of women feel that there's not equal opportunity.</p><p>On a local level, the women that I'm around and surrounded by feel that here there is great opportunity. There are powerful women here in high positions in the commercial real estate industry and in finance, so that's very encouraging to see.</p><p>DJC: As a national delegate, you've had the opportunity to meet with other chapters. How does Portland compare to other chapters in it's welcoming toward women in real estate?</p><p>Heer: I think we are pretty progressive. I think the women who founded this were very passionate about CREW and about getting other women together and continually building and expanding the organization.</p><p>In comparison to other chapters, there are some on the East Coast that are very established, 150 or 200 members, that have been around twice as long as we have. Each chapter goes through cycles; there are some chapters that are still in their beginning stages, struggling to have a good foundation of members. I think we're in the middle.</p><p>We average about 115 members, and (they are) members that are very involved. We're in the middle of the road. We still have a long way to go.</p><p>We have some room to grow, and we just revised our strategic planning last year and revised our short-term goals, which we do on an annual basis.</p><p>Trying to retain our existing members is a universal challenge that we all have - NAIOP, BOMA (the Building Owners and Managers Association) and others. We're starting to coordinate with other groups, where presidents of these organizations are sharing their calendars to help each other and help all of our members see all of the events so there's less confusion.</p><p>DJC: Is there a competitive environment with these groups?</p><p>Heer: Just trying to plan around, in the summertime, having all these golf events in the same week. But we really don't feel that we're competitive because we are a little different than those other organizations and we offer something a little different for our members.</p><p>What helps contribute to the success of CREW are our sponsors and the people that come to see them. Having that support from Opus Northwest, from Gerding/Edlen and others, they're so happy to give presentations and devote their time. We're appreciative of the community of developers, architects and planners. They are volunteering their time. We feel very fortunate for that. It makes our job easier in promoting the organization.</p>