Dear Nick

Thanks to members of this forum we have been using a card reader for the past ten months.  We only use it when people are giving donations, we don't (yet?) have the capacity to accept room hire invoices to be paid using the reader.

We use the card reader for donations towards BYM/QiB, Local Meeting, in theory Area Meeting funds, as well as special collections and fundraising towards Meeting House funds (we have had to do some significant Fire Safety etc upgrades to the building over the past year, and the card reader has proved popular for the events that Friends have been holding).  I had hoped there would be more use than there has been, particularly when Friends donate towards the refreshments.  I'd thought it would be a way to cut down the staff time counting the change Friends find at the bottom of their purses and pockets that end up in that donation bowl; we also pay for each cash deposit, so I was hoping that charge would decrease, but sadly not.  However, Friends are still getting to grips with it, and the use is slightly less dependent on the very few people who know how to use it being next to the reader each Sunday to help.  As a member of the Meeting said recently, we don't want to discourage cash use completely, as that would disenfranchise those who have the least, but I would welcome less lose change, and more considered approaches to giving.

So, in short, I have no answers to your question about how to encourage Friends to use the reader more, but I am interested to hear if others have.

All the best

Tasha