Waiting but not ready

The invention is directed to a system for distributing contacts to a plurality of resources in a contact center, comprising at least one resource for serving contacts at least a first set of contacts awaiting service by the at least one resource , wherein each of the contacts in the first set of contacts has a corresponding state and a selection agent operable to assign a resource to serve the contact when a contact in the first set of contacts has a first state and not assign the resource to serve the contact when a contact in the first set of contacts has a second state that is different from the first state. A state monitor can be used to change the state of a contact between the first and second states.