Tech people in house fees for weddings etc...

[Mike Moore]

Hi all,

As we are in a new facility with all new equipment and such...we are wanting to see if there are some reasonable fees that we should pay our media volunteers to be in house and operating the equipment for weddings or such events (i.e.sound, projection, and so on).
What does your church do in these instances?

Mike

[riafekim]

At my last church we would pay the voluteers $75 for something like that. Mind you that was 8 years ago so I assume the price has gone up some. The church would include this fee in with the building rental, etc. So it was really the people having the function that would pay it.

[bpalermini]

The users of the space pay the sound tech $75 for weddings and memorial services. If required they will also run a video.

[[Director] Joseph B]

I don't bill so I gratefully accept anything I'm given for doing that sort of stuff. Sometimes I make out, other times I get nothing. If it's for something secular I ask for whatever I feel a reasonable amount is.

[wvpv]

Our fee for wedding sound is $75. I usually spend about 8 hours for every wedding, which includes tear-down, rehearsal, the wedding and setup.

[Jerry Carter]

We include a $75 fee for a sound tech as a part of the building use fees.

[voyager529]

Originally Posted by wvpv

Our fee for wedding sound is $75. I usually spend about 8 hours for every wedding, which includes tear-down, rehearsal, the wedding and setup.

$9.38 an hour? I get more than that at Staples! Should we be greedy money mongers, of course not. But if a couple is getting married at your church and they're paying for the building et al, I don't see how getting twice that is unreasonable for eight hours work. I think that $150 is a fair amount to run sound for a wedding (if you're micing instruments and multiple people), but if it's just one favor and a CD....Remember that they're paying for your time above anything else.


Joey

[emellesee]

If someone renting our facilities needs sound, video projection or a custodian to open/close, we charge the renter $20/hour (min. 2 hours) and the volunteer is currently paid $10/hour. The remaining $10/hour reimburses the church for the time spent looking for a volunteer, co-ordinating details and for the use of church equipment.

If you want to figure out what a reasonable rate would be in your area, why don't you contact some banquet halls and find out what they charge for similar services?

God Bless,
ML

[NGRRFan]

For a simple wedding, no micing out of the ordinary, I charge $25, just like the organist. Any other requests, such as "can you make a video?" get billed at $20 an hour in addition to the base fee.

[Josh Scott]

$20 an hour per tech with a min. of three hours per day. For example a Wedding is usually a rehearsal that takes 2 hours, and two hours for the wedding. They would pay $120 per tech. The tech gets all the money. They are gifted and volunteer there gifts to the church. It is our way of saying thank you to give them the opportunity to get paid for what they know. I the group has there own tech then they are more the welcome to use them. They will still however pay to have a church tech their to observe. We actually charge $30 an hour for this. But if they have a whole tech team they only have to pay one person. If our worship team was playing some where else I would be their to either mix or tell the guy mixing how he is going to mix. I want to give that same right to anyone coming into our building. I have had bands come in that bring a FOH engineer and I have had bands that had a road manger that told me how to mix. They also have in the room contract that if I feel they running a chance of damaging our equipment they have to pay for one of our techs to run the gear.

[twj]

The renter pays the tech. We suggest $50.00. (It's not enough.) Sometimes I have received nothing. Other times I have been given as much as $100.00.

This money should not go through the church because to receive money from the church could make you an employee subject to with holding taxes according to our attorney. You could be considered an independent contractor but only if you do the same work for pay elsewhere.

[MediaGuy]

Our wedding paperwork says $100 for audio support. I don't think it says anything about video, but if video is needed, I believe $50 is usually asked for.

All money is given in the form of a suggested donation - so there have been times that no money has been given.

For funerals/memorials, there is no paperwork, so nothing specific is charged. I'm guessing it's because of the emotions involved in preparations. I have seen $50-$75 regularly given to our techs for these, though.