Building Use for Church Activities
Facility Scheduling and Event Planning Information

Facility Scheduling

Janet Rynne, our Administrative Assistant, is now scheduling our facility and coordinating all requests to use the Church space, including equipment, weddings, meetings, activities, and programs.  As First Pres continues to be a busy place for our members, committees, and programs, and for outside groups inquiring about using our facilities, it is imperative that requests be made to Janet as soon as you know your schedule, preferably at least two weeks prior to an event.  Outside groups may not reserve the facility more than three months in advance to give our own staff, committees, members, and programs the first opportunity to reserve dates.  If you need to use the Church building for any reason, please contact Janet in the church office at 630-668-5147.  Also, if you plan to sell or advertise tickets to an upcoming church event, or display/sell items between services, we have reserved Stewart Hall (right up the ramp) for you - please reserve your dates with Janet so a table might be provided.

See our Building Use Policy page for additional details about requesting the use of space in First Presbyterian Church. A Space Use Request Form must be completed by all groups and submitted to the Administrative Assistant at least two weeks in advance of the activity, but requesting space earlier increases the likelihood that it will be available. The Space Use Request Form provides for every area of the church. All facilities, set-ups, and other service needs (i.e. food, sound, etc.) must be included on the form.  In addition, an audio/visual request form must be provided to the church office at least two weeks in advance of the date of any event or activity in which any sound support setup (even one microphone) or video support setup is being requested.  If assistance from members of our Audio/Visual Ministry Committee volunteers is being requested during the event, the request should be made at least four weeks in advance to increase the likelihood that one or more of them can be available at a specific time.

Event Planning

The Communication Ministry Committee strives to provide church news through the church publications, the website, and press releases. If you or your group has news to disseminate, such as publicizing an event you are planning, be aware of the following recommendations and deadlines:

• Designate a contact person to be the focal point of communication/planning.
• Write a summary of the event to be used in bulletins, the newsletter, and on the website.  Make sure to include the who, what, when, where, and why’s.  Please note if this is an event that is open to the public or just to First Pres members.  Remember that contact information in this summary (names, email addresses, and/or telephone numbers) will appear on the church website.
• If the event is open to the public, submit press release information to Beth Gustafson at bgustafson5@sbcglobal.net at least 6 weeks prior to the event for a press release to be picked up by the local papers.  Digital photos with resolution of at least 300 dpi can also be provided.  Please be aware that press releases are used as the newspapers choose.  Beth can also be contacted by phone at 630-871-9572 if you have any questions.
• If you want online registration or both online registration and payment functions on the website, contact Ed Ballard at edballard2@comcast.net for information; and then email the details to him.  This should normally be done several weeks before the event.
• Newsletter articles must be submitted to Tiffany Carter, Publications Coordinator, by the 15th of the prior month, preferably by   She can also be reached by phone at 630-668-5147 x 17.
• Bulletin articles must be submitted to Tiffany by Tuesday prior to the Sunday publication, preferably by
• Special bulletin inserts should be planned in advance with Tiffany by or by phone at 630-668-5147 x 17.
• Designate one or more people to take pictures during the event, and provide the photos and a writeup of the event to Susan Miller, 630-682-0108, GGM81@aol.com.  Photos and information can be emailed to Susan or left on a CD in the Web Team mail slot in the Parish House entry closet just outside the library.  All photos should be accompanied by a contact name, phone number and/or email address, and any other pertinent information.  If a photo CD is to be returned, please annotate this and to whom it should be returned.  These are used for our Past Events pages.