We describe a methodology that ICF developed for on-line respondent driven sampling (RDS) recruitment and telephone data collection in order
to assess alcohol use in sexual minority women. Risk behaviors and protective factors in sexual minority women cannot be effectively studied in national surveys due to insufficient sample sizes, and many studies of this population are limited to small geographic regions. This methodology allows for national estimates of key risk behaviors and protective factors. The study includes novel methods for selecting seeds for the RDS sample from the National Alcohol Survey. Seeds and their eligible recruits are given recruitment coupons via email which they are incentivized to forward to contacts in their socialnetwork who may be eligible. Interviews are scheduled and conducted via phone. We will discuss the outcomes of the initial pilot testing this approach. The pilot includes 10 seeds and the subsequent recruitment chains which occur over the course of 2 weeks. If data are available, we will discuss the results of the full study which will include an anticipated 1,000 interviews. We will discuss both the effectiveness and challenges identified with the methodology, including efforts to prevent incentive collection scams, as well as present key estimates for risk behaviors and protective factors related to alcohol use in sexual minority women.