Responsibilities

• Please arrive and depart within the times stated on your contract with Quaker Center. Call the office if you would like to arrive early or depart late. You are responsible for helping members of your group who will be arriving late at night and/or will need assistance in getting to their accommodations.
• Each group needs to bring/provide its own bedding (sleeping bags or a twin fitted and flat sheet) and pillow cases, towels, and toiletries. One pillow and one blanket per mattress are provided, as is hand soap and paper towels. For those who are unable to bring their own linens, a limited number sets are available for a $10.00 laundering fee. For additional items that guests should bring, see “Things to Bring and Directions”.
• Please schedule a 15-minute orientation “welcome” talk by Quaker Center staff for your group soon after your arrival.
• You are responsible for keeping nightly records of occupancy, and daily records of day-only attendance. Each night your group exceeds your contract’s base size, you will be charged for extra people. Day-only attendees are considered part of the previous night’s rental until the base size is reached. When a group is larger than its base size: extra adults overnight pay the advertised overnight charge (see contract); extra day-use-only adults and children 3 years and older are half the cost of overnight guests; children 2 years of age and younger are free. Average attendance will not be used for billing purposes. If your contract includes the Sojourners Cottage or the Haven, people sleeping in these buildings are considered part of your group (e.g., for determining extra charges when exceeding the base size).
• Please respect Quaker Center’s noise curfew. All conversations must be indoors after 10:00 PM and before 7:00 a.m. After midnight, it is expected that there will be no noise inside or out. Any amplifiers must be turned off at 10:00 PM on weeknights and 10:30 PM on weekends.
• Quaker Center must transport all of our own trash and recycling to the local transfer station. Please rinse all plastic, glass and metal containers first and then use the signs in our recycling system in the nearby Trash/Recycling Shed to sort it out. We provide reusable tableware and compostable napkins. Please minimize your use of disposable tableware and packaging. If we need to make an extra dump run due to your group’s excessive disposables, we will charge an additional $50 to your final bill.
• Your group is responsible for cleaning the facilities and sleeping quarters before departure. Quaker Center reserves the right to bill your group if the facility is not left in the same condition that you found it. Items left behind are retained for no more than one month; you are responsible for retrieving items.
• Your participants can receive phone calls at the telephones in your dining facility: Orchard Lodge: (831) 336-9665, Redwood Lodge: (831) 336-9666.
• In an emergency guests can be contacted through the staff on call cell phone number (831)-212-2631 or the office phone number (831) 336-8333, which also rings in the Director’s home. Cell phone reception is variable, depending on the provider. Free wireless internet service is available in our library and in most buildings.
• Your group is financially responsible for all damages to Quaker Center as a result of your stay. Groups are responsible for liability coverage for their programs at Quaker Center. Please complete and return the Liability Insurance statement attached to your contract before your arrival.
• Encourage members of your group to take basic security precautions. Quaker Center does not provide keys for bedrooms. Therefore, we encourage guests to keep valuables with them or locked in a car. Quaker Center is not responsible for the loss/damage of personal possessions.
• You may cook for yourself or hire a cook. Your group is responsible to ensure that the kitchen is used in compliance with Health Department health and safety standards.
• Parking is very limited. Individuals are encouraged to share rides to and from Quaker Center or use public transportation.

Restrictions

• No pets are allowed at Quaker Center. The only exception is for trained service dogs for people with diagnosed disabilities. Emotional support animals are not allowed.
  • “A service animal means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Tasks performed can include, among other things, pulling a wheelchair, retrieving dropped items, alerting a person to a sound, reminding a person to take medication, or pressing an elevator button.Emotional support animals, comfort animals, and therapy dogs are not service animals under Title II and Title III of the ADA. Other species of animals, whether wild or domestic, trained or untrained, are not considered service animals either. The work or tasks performed by a service animal must be directly related to the individual’s disability. It does not matter if a person has a note from a doctor that states that the person has a disability and needs to have the animal for emotional support. A doctor’s letter does not turn an animal into a service animal.”
  • if you would like more information regarding service animals look here and/or here.
• Smoking is very restricted at Quaker Center and is not permitted in any of the buildings or on any of the trails. Please ask your group members to smoke inside their cars or in the gravel or paved unloading areas at least 20 feet away from the kitchens at each of the Lodges. Candles can be used only with the prior permission of the Directors. Incense is not permitted because the smells permeate and linger in fabrics. Illegal drug use and underage drinking are not permitted.
• Please ask your group members to refrain from using perfumes and highly scented products because they permeate fabrics and the next occupant of the bedroom may have allergies or environmental sensitivities.
• Please do not post your own signs on the road up to Quaker Center. Direct your participants to follow the “Quaker Center” signs from Highway 9 up Hubbard Gulch Road. Groups using both facilities use the Orchard Lodge as a central registration location. At the T intersection outside the office, Quaker Center staff will post signs to direct your group.
• Shoes and food are not permitted inside the Casa de Luz, the meeting space rented with the Orchard Lodge.
• Outdoor campfires and their locations must be approved by a Quaker Center staff member using appropriate protocols.

Emergency Information

• In case of emergency call 911 if necessary, then call our staff cell phone number at 831-212-2631. If no one answers it, try the office number 831-336-8333, which also rings in the Director’s home.
• Nearby medical services are at Scotts Valley Urgent Care at 4663 Scotts Valley Drive off of Mt. Hermon Rd. 831-458-6335, and at Dominican Hospital at 1555 Soquel Drive in Santa Cruz off of highway 1 going south from highway 17.
• FIRE: There is a fire extinguisher located in the kitchen area of the Haven. There is a fire hose at the top of the stairs near the Orchard Lodge and near the Redwood Lodge bunkhouse. In case of a major fire, call 911 first, next call the staff for help (if possible), then pull the hose all the way off the spool, hold on tightly to the nozzle, then turn the valve on all the way.
• EARTHQUAKE: In the event of a major earthquake which does structural damage to the lodge – after taking care of your group — turn off the following:
  • Electricity: Breakers are in the panel box in the kitchen area.
  • Water: Shutoff valve is outside the building near the kitchen.

Other Items

• Quaker Center stocks cleaning supplies and paper products for our guests, including toilet paper, trash bags, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, paper napkins, detergent and cleanser. We encourage all groups to consider the environmental impact of their retreat, asking you to conserve energy, water, and the use of disposable products. Please place your vegetable matter (no meat, dairy, or eggs) in our compost bin next to the garden and place recyclables in our bins (see map for locations). If members of your group bring their own cloth napkins, you can help us save resources.
• When more than one group is present, please coordinate the use of the Redwood Circle and the Labyrinth for group activities through the Quaker Center office.
• Public transportation information is available here. Quaker Center is 1.5 miles uphill from the Highway 9 bus stop. If someone in your group is arriving by public transportation after dark, or cannot walk up the hill, you should arrange to pick them up at the bus stop.