The Best Shredders for Churches
Every office likes to have shredders. The finance office needs to shred sensitive financial files or personnel records; a counseling minister may need to get rid of confidential files; an administrative assistant needs to shred papers with members’ addresses and phone numbers. Shredders are good and necessary to protect the church from any liability resulting from sharing confidential information accidentally.
But shredders are not cheap. The smallest ones cost about $50, and industrial ones go for a few thousand dollars (way beyond what a church needs). Shredders are not used a lot, though. They are used heavily for few projects and then they may sit for a few days or even weeks till they are used again. A real drawback to shredders is the mess they make – every time the plastic liner is replaced, some shreddings fall on the floor which then requires a vacuum to come out to clean it all up. Finally, they have to be maintained and eventually replaced, all of which costs even more money.
Here’s my recommendation: don’t spend any money on a shredder. Instead, take all your papers to your bank to shred. Every bank (including small branches) has shred boxes for their own internal use. They have to have these because of the volume of confidential info they deal with each day. Every so often (usually once a week), the bank’s shred box is emptied and shredded by a professional company. This is a benefit of using a bank that a bank won’t tell you about, but they’ll most often provide this customer service at no additional charge.
Get a box or plastic tub and place it in your office somewhere. When people need something to be shredded, they put the papers in the box/tub. Then, when the financial assistant goes to the bank for the regular weekly or semi-weekly bank deposit, the assistant can take the shred box/tub with her to the bank. Talk with your bank ahead of time to ask about doing this. As long as you don’t flood them with a huge box each week, they’ll be glad to help (at least, that’s what they’ll say in front of you!).
So, let your bank’s industrial strength shredders do your work, save you some money, and keep your office cleaner (and give you a little more space). Take advantage of this (unadvertised) service.
Lead On!
Steve