For our applicants who live outside of the Los Angeles area, we conduct our interviews via webcam, which gives us the exceptional ability to say that we’ve actually met each one of the egg donors on our database!  I’ve worked with other agencies in the past and I can’t say that the same is true for those organizations.  This gives us the confirmation that the person on the other end really is who they say they are, and gives us a much better feel for the donor’s personality and character.  I really enjoy being able to communicate with a donor in this way.  Some donors who have children of their own will even bring their child(ren) to the camera for a few minutes.  I also love seeing a donor who takes copious notes during our interview – when I can see her writing, it’s confirmation to me that she wants to make sure she knows what is required of her.

More and more of our applicants now have their own cameras that they are able to use for the interview, and for donors who don’t we will send one out via UPS.  From a logistics standpoint, this system actually runs surprisingly smoothly.  The only challenge I’ve experienced when working with webcams is that some donors who have never used a webcam before might have some trouble setting it up, but that is usually sorted out quickly and we can start the interview.  When the interview is over the donor just sends the camera back to us to be used by another candidate.  The process of sending the camera back is very simple as well – we provide them with a return label so there is no expense to the donor.  It makes it easy for everyone!

-Susan Rai, Beverly Hills Egg Donation