Hey Kevin,

I disagree with your union approach for the very reason you mention - the clients can just use non-union abstractors.  A union telling an abstractor what they have to charge is not going to go over well and as you put it, you have to have enough members to make it effective and too many abstractors are apathetic to the cause.

The benefits you mention are all good ideas and NALTEA could do them with enough members.  The problem is that we can't offer enough members to attract discounts for them.  For instance, health care was looked into and NALTEA just doesn't have enough members for any of the providers to be willing to offer a discount.

The education and marketing plans you mentioned are also a fantastic idea, however that requires money and to try to keep the dues affordable for abstractors, there just isn't enough to hire PR/Marketing firms and develop any kind of marketing campaign.

If everyone wants to sit back and wait for someone else to do it, it will never get done.  NALTEA membership is still growing - slowly, but growing.  Hopefully enough abstractors will decide to participate and some of these things can be accomplished on a larger scale. For now, they are doing what they can with their limited budget and volunteers.

I realize you aren't abstracting anymore, but you could join as an associate member and help the cause.  $200 per year is not very much money, but if NALTEA had 1,000 members quite a campaign could be launched. 

Best,
Robert A. Franco
SOURCE OF TITLE