E-Space FAQs, First United Methodist Church, Niceville, Florida

FAQs for FUMC Electronic Services

by Blane Pearson, Minister of Administration

What: FUMC is launching new electronic services to save church time and money; and provide faster, easier service to the congregation.

Who: Contact Blane Pearson, Minister of Administration, at 678-4411, ext. 116, or bpearson@fumcniceville.org

When: All services are set to launch in January 2007. Beta testing to make sure everything is seamless, is happening this fall.

How:

1. E-Giving—otherwise known as electronic funds transfer, electronic debiting, automatic recurring bill paying, etc.

Q. How does this work?
A. Once you enroll, the church will provide your banking information to its bank. Once a week, the church will “sweep” all the bank accounts that signed up for that week and the money will be electronically deducted from your account and deposited into the church account.

Q. How does this save the church time and money?
A. Normally, people write checks or give cash. This money has to be sorted and bagged on Sunday morning and put in the drop safe. On Monday, counters come in to count, sort, and process that money. The accounts receivable person then sits at the computer and manually posts each check into the proper account, stamps the back of all the checks, prepares a deposit, and reconciles the computer to the cash. With electronic giving, nearly all these steps are bypassed. Everything happens with the click of a button and the reconciling is also automatic.

Q. Can I pick the frequency and day to have my account swept?
A. Absolutely, if you want to have your deduction occur once a month on the 10th of the month, then the church will run the sweep on or shortly after the 10th. The sweep will run once a week, usually on a Monday, for all dates from the previous Monday. If the 10th fell on a Tuesday, then the deduction will occur no later than the following Monday, depending on the bank holidays, and employee leave.

Q. Why should people paying their bills online switch to this?
A. First, if they pay any fee, then this service is free. Secondly, the church still receives a check from their financial institution and it has to go through the whole process mentioned above and really saves the church no time or effort.

Q. Can I sign up for other regular electronic giving?
A. Yes, if you tithe weekly, but want to give once a month to benevolence, you can do that or any other purpose.

Q. What do I do to enroll?
A. Contact the church office and ask for an enrollment form to be mailed or pick one up. Fill it out and return it at least two weeks before the first date you want a deduction to occur.

2. E-Newsletter—or pickup-newsletter, or webview-newsletter—it’s your choice.

Q. How does my switching from mail delivery save time and money?
A. Each month we have mailed out about 5000 newsletters. That’s 4 sides of 11X17 heavy stock paper printed in two colors (on some sides). These newsletters are run on our own press by a staff person. They are then folded on a folding machine. Another staff person runs off all the mailing labels ($70) on a printer. The two pages are then stuffed one inside the other and then they are folded on a commercial folding machine. Approximately 12 volunteers then put the labels on and peel/stick the closing tabs on the edges (required by the post office). The whole group is then sorted to bulk mail standards and prepared for the post office. Someone else then loads them in a van/truck and delivers them to the post office. Are you tired yet from reading that? Think of all the machinery wear and tear, ink, tabs, rubber bands, etc. on top of the cost of the paper and labels.

Q. When can I expect delivery of my Newsletter?
A. Via email: it should go out on no later than the Tuesday night of the week it is scheduled (possibly even Monday night). Via Pickup: It will be in the information racks late Tuesday afternoons. Via Mail: it can arrive anywhere between Friday or beyond of the scheduled week, maybe as early as Thursday.

Q. I’m convinced, how do I help?
A. Pick an alternative method of delivery. There’s email, pickup, and viewing on the web. Sign up on the bulletin response sheet or on the website (left side menu, select “ministries”, then administration), or call the church office. If you choose email, make sure to write down your current email address (even if you think we have the right one).

Q. How does the “pickup” option work?
A. the newsletter is prepared every other Tuesday and it will be placed in its slot in the information racks around the building by Tuesday late afternoon. Any time you are at the church (Wednesday night dinner, small group, Sundays, etc.) just take your copy out of a rack. We will publish a reminder in the Sunday bulletin when it is a newsletter week coming up.

Q. Can I print the Email or Web version on my home printer? A. Yes, they are formatted in 81/2 X 11 pages which will mean about 8 pages to print.

3. E-STATEMENTS—alternative to mailed paper statements.

Q. How will this save time and money for the church?
A. See E-Newsletter; this is very similar to that as it relates to the printing, folding, stuffing, mailing, postage, etc. The difference here is that there are only two people who can work on most of this process, due to the personal nature of the information being handled. It’s a good thing this is only done once a quarter, because it is a huge job to process these statements to all of our giving units. You will also receive your statement days ahead of a mailed statement. We know this is important for those who file income tax right away in January.

Q. Will I be able to print my emailed statement?
A. Yes!

Q. How do I get E-Statements?
A. Sign up on the bulletin response sheet or on the website (left side menu, select “ministries”, then administration), or call the church office. Make sure to give us your current email address (even if you think we have the right one).

4. COMING SOON—more helpful features!!