More listings in MLS?

Good answers here, Ginger.

MLS is a profit generation org. They serve the board/owner's ego. They do not consult or have committee formulating. Every so many years they justify the fee increase by crying out their membership is down.  Join to a regional what does a local micro RE agent benefits from it? Nothing.   So you pay national, state, county, city, local neighborhood, brokers and Supra fee. You got little if any left before give another donation to unemployed people who pretend they are sales professionals.  A paid agent shows your listing on Z, Tra, realtor, homes that you should be the only one.  I really do not see anything good coming out a regional org.  Would you want to show homes 200 miles from your home?  

There are no Pros for the individual agent. 
Your broker will love the idea.

The Cons are you will lose control of your MLS.

They will make decisions based on revenue generation (Zillow) and not be responsive to the need of the individual agent. You intellectual properties WILL NOT BE PROTECTED. However, they will package the idea as cost containment suggesting it will save you money. To make it crystal clear to you, this is similar to the words with which you are familiar, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." 

As a REGIONAL organization, your voice will never be heard. You should do all you can to prevent this from occurring.

However, if you are like half of Active Rain participants and have already defaulted to the dark side. It simply won't make any difference....resistance is futile, you willl be assimilated...you must conform.

Courage is not an exhibition of bravery.
Courage is the refusal to conform.

Great answers here, Ginger.

More exposure to your listings.

My MLS covers a large region, but that's because we are so rural. We would like to expand it. I don't see a problem with that. With increased membership and revenues, the MLS can offer additional services for very little extra charge. 

We had the same fight here.  We retained our own MLS and decided to data share with our big neighbors to the North and South.  It has not gone well at all.

I belong to a regional MLS--we cover two states, at least a dozen counties and have been growing for years. I think the economies of scale for the very small mls's just aren't there these days. Really, the way I look at it is what is the downside?

Depends on your area.  We are regional because of the vast area of rural properties.

Ginger, I guess it would depend which of the consolidating MLS boards has the most pull.  Right now I don't see many benefits as another MLS board has great influence and we have had to cow tow to them with listing forms and our mls sheet and it has been a major NEGATIVE!

Supposedly our fees were to go down because of increased buying power but that has NOT happened yet. 

A POSITIVE that I can see is many of these MLS boards are spread clear across our state so anyone looking to buy a "kiddie condo" for their kids going to Purdue University would now be plugged into the MLS search and that would help our listing agents of these properties.