I understand and appreciate the need for screening and discretion.  My desire for discretion is my only concern with screening.  I work out of an office in my home for a company based in another state, and have only a voice mail extention at the company phone number.  All calls to the switch board and not direct to vm are logged, and while I doubt there would be a problem, I do want discretion.  Obviously as a newbie, I have no provider references, so I would think that employment verification would be a must.  Anyone have any input?  Thanks for the help.

1st.  All providers have different screening processes.

2nd. Get yourself a hotmail address and run all your information through there. This is an excellent way to communicate with providers and once they reach a comfort level with you the process will become easier.

3rd. Buy a cellphone very cheap investment and use it for your calls.

4th. Explain your situation to the provider and they will be very happy to work with you (in most cases)

hobby safe hobby well hobby all you can be ......

Any info you get here will be general. For this reason, you may be better off researching local ladies, creating a short list of candidates for a date and then working with the ladies. You may also want to pose this question on your regional board. Hopefully, ladies who are willing to work with you will reply.

thirsty

Thanks, Spinner.  Got my hotmail account set up today, already have a personal cell phone, and will start contacting some ladies.  BTW, love your tag line.
Play

besides the ones you've already heard in this post (to each gal her own)

i don't see anything wrong with phone calls (to a receptionist or even you) being logged as long as you agree (beforehand if necessary) that the conversation be masked as a legitimate work-related one). most providers who call your work say something benign like "This is Ms. Jane Dougherty from CitiBank ..." so it's all very discreet

another a point for newbies (and i'm not saying you did/think this) which is worth repeating/emphasizing and that is: DO NOT ask providers (especially on public boards prowled by LE) what their screenig procedures are (for reasons which should be obvious by now  ... i'm amazed that even (relatively) seasoned hobbyists on TER will occasionally ask providers (innocently i hope) publicly on board how they screen ... it pisses off every provider i've talked to and is a sure way to get the blunt end of the stick in board discussions

Thanks very much.  You've greatly eased my mind about the screening call, and I would never bring up anything on a board that should remain in a private conversation or email.

I have had a couple of providers call me at work, and found them to be very easy to work with when I offered them alternatives to their standard reason for calling.  

In your case you could possibly tell them to give a phone number 1 digit off, they are verifying they have the right person.  I'm sure you can come up with a good reason for someone to be calling you.  Someone from a hotel you recently stayed at on business, for example, shouldn't raise any questions.