Jay:

I am no longer abstracting, but if I can help Naltea in an advisory capacity, please let me know. I will be happy to act as an advisor.

As a follow up to the above posting, I wanted to shed a little light:

Naltea Membership/Union:
    1.   I think that the problem Naltea may be facing with respect to membership is a general apathy accross the board with the abstractors. I think many of them have limited budgets, and are concerned with what they get in return for their annual membership fee. I think you have to take into account that they have limited budgets, and need to see a return on the investment. 

          When Naltea was formed the incentive was to obtain lower group health insurance rates and e&o rates. These are great ideas, and should be followed up, but possibly in a different method. My knowledge of Naltea is limited to posting on SOT, but as I understand it the insurance companies tied any reduction in premiums to effectuation of a training/certification program. As I understand it there was some problem with the program...not certain exactly what. The certification was a difficult task to include all the laws of the various states. I also think that it was too restrictive for experienced abstractors. Even the state bar associations offer alternatives to bar exam to attorneys with more than five years experience. The objective of obtaining the reduced e&o insurance premiums is a great idea, but I think the means of obtaining it need to be re-evaluated to accomplish it.

            In so far as a union is concerned, it is a concept that most abstractors understand in lieu of membership in a trade organization.
There are two ways to accomplish it. 

                    a.  Either contact an existing union of your choice and have them send union organizers. The draw back of this approach is that you have to answer to a national, and if some other group that they represent goes out on strike, the abstractors may be asked to do the same in sympathy. You also give up a lot of independence. 

                    b.  The preferable route is to form your own union exclusively for abstractors. You would have to contact a labor attorney to set you. (This is not an area in which I practice). You can organize and structure the by laws to the express needs and desires of the membership, and the abstractors remain in full control of their objectives. 

              What can a union offer the abstractor that Naltea is not... group reductions on auto insurance, life insurace and health insurance  and a retirement plan (similar to teachers unions). You could also make membership in Naltea an added benefit of membership in your union.

               What are the benefits of the union...more effective representation in the market among the title companies and vendor managers. ..better control of price negotiation for an abstractor's services without the counter threat of price fixing. In so far as the fears of abstractors having to pay union wages to their employees is concerned, these expenses can be included in the increased price of the client's doing business with the union members. Will the clients have the option of dealing with non union abstractors? Certainly, but hopefully you can attract enough union members to make the prospect unattractive, and you are still free to educate the client's client to whom he answers by the weak link theory explained below.

    2.     The weak link:

                 As explained above to find the weak link in the food chain it is necessary to travel up the chain to the party that ultimately controls the funding, and for whom everyone lower in the chain works.  The weak link needs to be educated to how his interests are being handeled, and whether there is a better method.

                 This approach is used in other industries. I personally saw it work when I worked for CBS. One of the major Ad Agencies in New York was buying 400 rating points per weak of television advertising in the Chicago market. That is a huge amount of money when spread across an advertising campaign of several weeks duration. The media buyer cut CBS out of the deal for whatever reason we do not know. We put together a sweet deal and approached the client directly to educate the client as to what was available, but which was not considered by the media buyer. It worked. There was a re-buy of the market in which CBS got its fair share of the deal. The first time this happens the buyer is called up on the carpet to explain himself. If it happens a second time, the buyer is fired. If it happens a third time the Ad Agency loses the account.

             I think the same approach could be used by the abstractors, if they are organized properly.

   3.      Promotion:

            I think the position of the abstractors could be improved if the title community and general public better understood the nature of the work performed and its importance. Institutional advertising could be used to accomplish this. You may need to hire an Ad Agency or PR firm to accomplish this, or possibly this is a function that Naltea could perform. I understand how to buy rating points in both television and radio, and will be happy to share the knowledge. I can also explain how the Neilsen ratings work. 

Anyway, Jay, just a few more thoughts on the subject.