you can create the datareader object as public in the class
if I had it accessible I would post it, but below should give you
the general ideal.

public class dataclass

public objDR as sqlDataReader
public objConn as sqlConnection


public sub LoadReader()
' open connection and leave open
' do stuff to load reader
end sub

end class


' to access objDR
dim clsdata as new dataclass

clsdata.loadReader

clsdata.objDR.Read

clsdata.objConn.Close