Got the answer. Found it in
http://blogs.msdn.com/synergist/arch...l-message.aspx
in a message posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 5:09 PM by a Gary. Per his
suggestion I did the following:

Created a Function to retrieve the current item:

Function GetCurrentItem() As Object
Dim objApp As Outlook.Application

Set objApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
On Error Resume Next
Select Case TypeName(objApp.ActiveWindow)
Case "Explorer"
Set GetCurrentItem = objApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
Case "Inspector"
Set GetCurrentItem = objApp.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem
Case Else
' anything else will result in an error, which is
' why we have the error handler above
End Select

Set objApp = Nothing
End Function
'From http://www.outlookcode.com/codedetail.aspx?id=50

Then invoked the function in my code as follows

Public Sub GetContactTitleData()
Dim oContact As Outlook.ContactItem

Set oContact = GetCurrentItem()
MsgBox oContact.Account

End Sub

I'll have to include some error trapping but I think the fundamentals are
here, and they seem to work. Thanks to all who helped, especially Ken
--
Sierk