If people are excluded, they will eventually thwart the work of the group, so bring them in early. Build trust by getting busy doing the agreeable projects first and controversial ones later. Keep participants in one corner of the ring and the problem in the opposite corner. Other consortiums like ours exist, but they are few and far between. Where they do exist they are powerful, respected, effective, and efficient organizations.
Partnerships are the wave of the future.
In a time of budget cutbacks and federal government shutdowns, shared resources, which include people, money, and time, are not only necessary, they make good sense.