I like that concept, but it seems very difficult to pull off.  Here are a few potential problems I see:

1.  Liability - I am concerned not with the liability of any individual abstractor, but the LLC as a whole.  If the work is being ordered from the LLC - don't we run the risk of being brought in to a suit any time one of the members makes a mistake?  I can't imagine what that E&O policy would cost.

2.  Lack of Choice - If we get a less than thorough abstractor that buys in we would be "obligated" to assign them work, even if we find out they don't do the quality we expect. 

3. Lack of Control - With 1 to 2 thousand members of the LLC, who is going to be in charge?  I think everyone would want to do things "their" way, and as an owner, they might expect it.

4. Independent Mentality - We are all used to working independently.  I'll bet "plays well with others" wasn't something seen on most of our kindergarden report cards.  Though it is truly what is lacking, how do we convince everyone it is in their best interest to work with their competition?

5. Competition - You really can't discuss possible problems without including outside competition from other vendor management companies.  Other vendor management companies are trying to force abstractors into working for less, and using the cheapest they can find.  If other vendor management companies are offering a lower price, we would need to compete soley based on quality - that can be a really tough sell to potential clients.  Can we structure this so that we can charge the prices we do for a quality search, and still offer a lower price to the client.

Like I said, I really like the concept... I'm just throwing out some possible problems that we need to resolve.  Anyone have any ideas on how to work this out?  Maybe if we all discuss it, we can come up with some suggestions.

Regards,
Robert A. Franco
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