Rentals Frequently Asked Questions

Booking your date

            In order to book a date, we will need a signed contract and a refundable security deposit from you. Your answers to the rental request form will determine what is put into the contract. Changes can be made to the contract later if rooms or times need to be adjusted. Rentals contracts can be altered up until 2 weeks prior to the event.

The security deposit amount depends on the size of the event and a few other factors. Deposits are typically between $250 and $1000. Deposits and Payments can be made via check made out to UUCB and mailed to us at 1 Lawson Rd, Kensington, CA 94707 or via PayPal at give@uucb.org. All rental deposits and payments must have the rental number written in the memo section of your preferred payment method as well as a distinction of whether it’s a deposit payment or payment of rental fees. The rental number will be on the contract.

Other than the security deposit, which is due with the signed rental contract, any additional payments can be made at any time up to 2 weeks prior to your event. If your event is less than 2 weeks away when you sign the contract, the entire payment is due with the signed contract to book your date.

Timeline

Rental and calendar requests are reviewed on Wednesday mornings.

The rentals coordinator will reach out to you via the email given on the rentals form and let you know if the date is available and offer a chance to ask questions or book a tour. Please reply if you would like a tour, and to let us know you would like to hold the date. You will then get a contract within two weeks. If you have not paid the deposit yet, it is due immediately upon receiving the contract. The amount and instructions for paying will be on the first page of the contract.

While planning your event, please refer to these FAQs for answers. If you have any questions not answered here or need to schedule a walkthrough, please email rentals@uucb.org.

Two (2) weeks before the event:

Final Payment will be due 2 weeks before the event. Rentals contracts can be altered up until 2 weeks prior to the event. After that time, no more changes to rooms or rental times can be made. If there is a need to add additional time or services, the fees will come out of the security deposit.

Floor plans are due 2 weeks before your event date. If you do not choose a floor plan, we will set up according to our standard floor plans based on the type of event and guest estimate for each space that a choice was not provided for.

One (1) week before event:

If there are outside rentals, the Rentals Coordinator needs to know the drop off and pickup windows.

Rental Periods

Rentals start when the renter enters the building to begin setting up for their event and ends when guests have left, the renter has finished cleaning up, and they are ready to leave the premise. All rentals are per hour unless you have booked a package.

Sanctuary/Sunday Rentals

The Sanctuary has recently been outfitted with a new HVAC system for covid safety. This system has a 6.4 air exchange rate, which means the air in the sanctuary is replaced by outside air 6.4 times per hour. The CDC recommended Air exchange rate for singing is 6.0.

We do not allow events to come into the building to begin setting up until 3:00pm on Sundays due to our own worship service needs.

We have a new high-quality sound and livestreaming system in the Sanctuary only that is available for rent. It has high speed internet, 3 mounted PTZ cameras, and capabilities to stream to YouTube and Facebook Live for concerts and events. Pricing for the livestream depends on a few different factors and requires 2 UUCB AV techs to be on site for the duration of the event. A rehearsal of 1-3 hours in the days leading up to the event is recommended to work out the details of shots, streaming needs, and sound capabilities.

Staffing

A site manager will be onsite for the entire duration of your rental period as a proxy of the church. All UUCB event staff are trained on all of our AV systems, opening and closing procedures, and the rules of UUCB. At this time, we are requiring all of our event staff to be background checked. Site managers are on site as a representative of the church and can help with questions and basic set up. They do not run any AV such as slide shows or movies, aside from livestreaming or sound during a concert, and are not responsible for cleaning up after the event.

Day-of Event Insurance

UUCB requires all renters to provide a Day-of-Event Certificate of Insurance with one-million-dollar ($1 million) liability coverage, naming the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley as additional insured. You can sometimes get this from your homeowners or renters insurance. There are also companies online that offer it. We have a relationship with eWed Insurance. You can use this link to purchase insurance for your event: https://app.ewedinsurance.com/app/?bID=61002&cID=15015. Using this link will ensure the right coverage is bought. Once purchased all documents are automatically emailed to you and us. If you would like to speak with an insurance specialist at eWed, please call 800-426-1064.

Waivers for this requirement may be given on a case-by-case basis for small events only.

Audio Visual Equipment and Musical instruments

For information about livestreaming in the Sanctuary see the AV FAQs below.

We provide 2 speakers and up to 2 microphones for every rental per room. The Sanctuary and Fireside rooms are already outfitted with sound systems and require no external speakers to be set up. Any additional Microphones and other AV equipment is available as part of your rental. We do not allow renters or outside vendors to use our ethernet connections, but we do have wifi in every room that is available for anyone to use.

We have a projector screen in the Sanctuary that is available for rent for $50, as well as a Flat screen TV for use in other rooms for the same price.

Pianos of various size are available for use for a $200 fee. The Sanctuary has a Yamaha Grand Concert piano on the chancel that cannot be moved to other rooms but can be used on the chancel. Baby grand pianos can be moved to other rooms in the church except for up onto the Social Hall stage or into the Safir Room. We can also move baby grand pianos to the floor areas in front of the pews in the Sanctuary, just not onto the Chancel. We offer tuning of any of our pianos for an additional $200 fee. We also have several pianists on staff. If you choose to hire an outside pianist, recommendations on pianists can be given, however we do charge a bench fee of $150.

The pipe organ in the Sanctuary is not available for personal use but may be rented along with our staff organist to play it. Please let the rentals coordinator know if you are interested.

Tables and Chairs

We currently provide tables and chairs at no cost from what we have on-hand. At this time we have 30- 8’ rectangle tables that can seat 8 maximum, 3- 6’ rounds that can seat 6 maximum, and an assortment of smaller rectangle and square tables that can be used for food, décor, etc. We do not have cocktail tables. We have 70 orange fabric and wire chairs and 150 brown padded folding chairs. The padding on the folding chairs is two different colors (beige and maroon) and we cannot guarantee they will all match. If you would like different tables and chairs, please contact your caterer or local rental companies for options. We will set up any tables and chairs that we have provided for you prior to the event and break them down following the event. Breaking down tables and chairs will increase your rental period, it is the duty of the church staff. This does not apply to any tables and chairs rented from outside UUCB. UUCB staff will not move, set up or break down any outside vendors rentals of any kind.

Kitchen use and catering

Minimum kitchen use is for prep and plating only. The gas for the ranges and convection ovens is not turned on, but the use of the refrigerators, freezer, and counters are allowed. There is a $200 flat rate fee to use the kitchen space.

Full kitchen use is $100 per hour and will be charged for the entire rental period. Full use includes use of the oven and ranges and the Hobart dish sanitizer, as well as everything included in minimum kitchen use.

Coffee Urns – Coffee urns can be rented for an event. We will not provide coffee, you must bring in your own. We recommend you have it ground for a percolator, which is a coarse grind.

Any event with more than 50 guests where food will be served will need to take all trash, recycling, and compost away. Please arrange this with your caterer or have a plan to remove all refuse from your event. Please do not use our cans, we do not have the capacity for refuse from large events. If you are bringing in your own food (finger foods, snacks, potluck style, etc.) and do not need the kitchen space to prepare, you do not need to pay the kitchen use fee.

You may serve beer and wine (no hard liquor) on premise for an additional $250 refundable security deposit. If you are selling drinks or if your caterer is providing and serving alcohol you will need to obtain a day-use liquor license from the county, or have your caterer provide us with their liquor license in advance.

Cancellations 

All events can be cancelled up to 3 months prior to the event date with no penalties. If the event is cancelled less than 3 months before your event date you will forfeit your security deposit.

Security

UUCB does not provide security services. We recommend events open to the public and/or over 150 people consider hiring temporary security. Event organizers are responsible for any damage done by their attendees.

Event-Specific Considerations

Event Planners: Staff are not available for event planning, and your principal Planner/event contact is allowed one preliminary tour/consultation before the contract is signed and one final walk through before the event. Additional questions will be answered the day of the walk-through.

Memorials: We highly encourage you to engage outside ministers for your memorial service or celebration of life. They are experienced in organizing these events and are a valuable resource in dealing with the myriad of issues that can arise. Services can include/not include providing the eulogy according to the spiritual preference(s) of the family.

Weddings:  If you need an officiant, UUCB will reach out to our community ministers, but we cannot guarantee their availability. Their honorarium/fees are separate from the rental fee.

AV Pricing and FAQs

Pricing

TV cart/Projector- $50 flat rate

Livestream/Hybrid meeting in Sanctuary- $500 (includes 2^nd AV Tech)

Microphones and Speakers

Come free with every room rental and are run ONLY by the site manager.

Sanctuary has an in-house sound system and can have up to 9 total microphones. Of those 9, one is the pulpit mic which cannot move at all, there are 4 line inputs on the chancel that we can plug the lectern mic into or other wired mics (we have stands for these mics as well) the other 4 mics are wireless mics that can be a combination of either handheld wireless mics or lav mics. We can also hook up a laptop or phone to the sound system to play music.

Fireside room has an in-house system and can have up to 4 total microphones. Of those 4, one is the lectern mic, 2 can be wired mics, and the last mic is a wireless mic that can be a combination of either handheld wireless mics or lav. We can also hook up a laptop or phone to the sound system to play music.

Social Hall and Atrium need to have speakers set up in the room (we only have 1 set of speakers so we can only set up sound in one room at a time unless the room is the sanctuary or fireside room which have their own sound systems) They can have 4 wired mics and we can also hook up a laptop or phone to the sound system to play music. We don’t have the capability for wireless mics outside of the Fireside Room and the Sanctuary.

Terrace set up can only be done with a portable speaker, and have up to 2 wired mics. A laptop or phone can also be connected for music.

Projectors

Sanctuary has a full projection system that can only be run by the Site Manager, no exceptions. We can run PowerPoint, videos that have been given to us or given the link from a video platform like YouTube or Vimeo, etc. We don’t currently have the capability for presenters on the chancel to control a presentation themselves from the chancel, they have to be run from the tech desk at the back of the Sanctuary. There is the capability to run sound into the Sanctuary through our sound board for what’s playing on the projector.

All other rooms we have a portable projector and screen that can be set up anywhere in the building and just requires a laptop to plug into via HDMI and can play what’s playing on the laptop. We strongly advise using the TV cart instead as it’s less complicated to set up and can be moved anywhere very easily and the sound/picture quality is much better.

Hybrid Meetings

Also known as Zoom meetings or video calls are available only in the Fireside room, Safir room, and Sanctuary.

In the Fireside Room and Safir Room the TV cart and a laptop is all that’s needed, since the rooms are small enough that speakers and the audience can be picked up by the laptop’s microphone and camera.

In the Sanctuary it requires 2 UUCB staff members, one to run the meeting and one to run sound. The projector is needed to show presentations or attendees on Zoom (likely both). Attendees on Zoom will be able to speak through zoom and into the sanctuary if needed.

Livestream

ONLY available in the Sanctuary

Livestreaming requires 2 UUCB staff members for the entire duration of the event (one for sound and one for the livestream itself) and takes about 2 hours for setup unless there’s a rehearsal prior to the event.

We have 3 PTZ cameras, overhead microphones to pick up instruments/vocalists on the chancel, and mics in the house to capture room noise (useful for organ and for audience noise when appropriate) on top of our 9 mics that can play in the house and in the livestream simultaneously but mixed at different levels for each application. We use this system every Sunday for our church services and examples can be found on our church’s YouTube page.

You can use your own YouTube channel to stream to or use ours. We ask if you use our channel that there is no copyright infringement, or we will take the video down immediately after streaming. If you set up the livestream on your own page, just be sure to have the owner of the YouTube account on site for when we sign in as Google requires two-factor authentication which needs to be done during the first hour of the 2-hour set up period.

We can incorporate videos, images, and PowerPoints into the Livestream, though they must be given to the AV team before 4PM on Friday if the event is over the weekend. PowerPoints and videos can be played simultaneously on the projector and in the livestream, we just need to know ahead of time. An “order of service” or detailed program of the event is useful to the team for managing sound cues, camera angles, and PowerPoint slides and videos.

Lighting

As of right now the lighting cannot be changed in any room, other than the few-pre-programmed settings that we can show you during setup.

Here are some helpful tips to consider if you’re thinking about renting UUCB for your special event:

• Be sure to check available dates on our online calendar first!

• Facility tours are available by appointment only. No “drop-ins,” please. Appointments may be scheduled by email.