I made my first post to the regional boards and am getting notification that I have private messages, however I can't find them! Do I need to purchase a VIP account in order to read them? Or am I missing a link somehow to private messages? Thanks for your help!

providers who have a profile are allowed PM privlidges.

Since you have notification of mail, that implies that you do have these privlidges.

Have you clicked on the mail button and checked?  When you do that, you'll see a button for an inbox.  See if that works.

If not, contact administration and ask them what is going on.

Do you know if you have reviews on TER?  If so, you can also ask administation to link your profile to each post you make.

Good luck with this.

By the way, nice site you have there.

Wow I concur about your site, very nice indeed!!

providers can get limited VIP for free