Patent ID: 7147149

Claim:
A method of communication for a confined area of a facility employing a member locating system having a group of location stations distributed throughout the confined area, comprising: providing a transmitter to each member of a group for providing group member personal identification information to the member locating system as the members move about the confined area for tracking the location of the members and for facilitating cashless spending throughout the confined area, wherein members of the group may be located using one of the location stations; receiving personal identification information of group members into at least one station of a set of stations distributed throughout the confined area; receiving monetary deposit information for the group; receiving transaction information from at least one of a group of cashless stations distributed throughout the confined area; scanning the transmitter of one of the group members at the cashless station to receive group member personal identification information from the transmitter located near the cashless station to complete the transaction being made by the group member at the cashless station; creating transaction reports; and receiving account information at the cashless station in response to the group member personal identification information from the transmitter located near the cashless station as the transaction is being completed by the group member.