aurora, you've brought up another good point, really.
A good way to meet people - maybe someone who ends up becoming a partner -- is to attend a reputable fetish party, or several of them.
This is one exception, I think, to meeting people you don't know. If you know someone well (like you did, aurora, you knew Rich) who knows the other parties well and you go with them, it's a bit different. (Altho you did end up stuck with all of us people you didn't know cuz Rich got delayed
- but you knew us by proxy)
Group situations are generally safe(r),I believe, if you know the reputation of the group from our community as well as know people who went. Meeting one on one, in private, is obviously more risky because if one person is nutso, there's not really anyone else around to intervene.
sarah