After the interviewing process and the selection of a firm has been agreed upon, the next step is to requisition from the firm their contract. Either your committee members or an Attorney or both should review the contract. From here, a time and date is determined for a contract signing by the church representatives and the firm you have hired. Many times the greatest hurdle for churches is the signing of the contract. This act of finalizing the relationship is either intentionally delayed or ignored. This has hindered and even stopped the progress of many building projects. The following is the end result from this lack of action: All the time and resources of the church’s selection committee, as well as travel, personnel, and opportunity costs of the firms that interviewed, are being flushed down the drain. The reason for this is due to a very common fear that has plagued mankind from the beginning and is considered apart of the human nature . . .a fear to commit. Studies have been done that indicate that most fear is grounded in a lack of knowledge and understanding. Even after churches have hired an Attorney to help them make sense of the contract, it can still not be enough to overcome the paralysis. The following explanation will help shed a different light on this subject and will hopefully expedite the decision to take the step to sign and commit.
The world economy is driven by Supply and Demand. What people demand, someone will be glad to supply for a fee. Same thing holds true for the demand for a “no” or a “minimal” commitment relationship during a building project. This is one reason why the Architect / GC process has been so widely accepted even with its dismal success rate. Sign a contract with a stand alone Architect. When the Architect is done with design, you will sign another contract with a General Contractor who will then sign multiple contracts with sub-contractors. Even though a church will have to sign multiple contracts with this delivery process it seems on the surface to be safer. The church feels like they are making small steps of commitment that will enable them to bail at the slightest sign of trouble. But the real problem here is when you demand a “no” or “minimal” commitment from those you hire, you create a division of responsibilities among the key disciplines that will have a profound impact on your building project as well as the final cost of your project. FW Dodge states that 70% of building project goes over budget by 30% to 50%. Strict separation of those that need to work together is a strategy used by the great war strategists throughout time to defeat their enemies and that is Divide and Conquer. This works great against your enemies, but don’t do it to yourself if you want to win. The church leaders need to read the Architect’s AIA agreement, as well as the GC contract with a very critical eye. These contracts were never deigned with the Owners interest in mind.
The “No” or give me “Minimal” commitment mentality has been supplied to those who demand it by the D/B firms by breaking up the process into just two steps. Firms have incorporated in their contracts an “Escape Clause” that will only commit you to Part One: planning and early design stage of the project. If you decide to go further into Part Two: Final Working Drawings and Construction you will be rewarded with FREE work or some other item of enticement. By the way, another “ human nature” characteristic that can supersede a “NO” commitment desire is something for FREE. YOU demand it WE will supply it. Opium is a cash crop in Afghanistan and a reporter from America went over to do a documentary on the subject. The reporter asked one of the farmers why they grew a crop that had such devastating consequences to the users and he said, “ Because Americans demand it. If they wanted tomatoes instead, we would grow tomatoes.” Unfortunately what drives the actions of many is money. Many of today’s D/B systems are modified A/GC systems. A common characteristic of these systems is that they are all closed book. There are articles you can read that will go into great depth as to what “Closed Book” means, but for this article it means simply that you the Owner will not be informed as where your money is going and where it is being spent. So FREE really isn’t FREE.
A Full Service Design / Build company should construct a contract that will encourage commitment without apologizes. The Design / Build process, in its purest form, focuses on building a dedicated Team of Professionals that work interdependently with the Building Committee for the sole purpose of creating a united and committed front line of defense. A team cannot be successful if only half of the team is fully committed. I don’t believe in contractual bondage either. There are times when it would be in the best interest of all parties to part ways. In the words of a Professor of Contract Law, “The heart of a contract lies within the Termination Clause, and the contents of the clause are a reflection of the heart of the company.” Ask your Attorney when reviewing a contract to examine the Termination Clause closely. Have him give you a measurement of 1 to 10, one being the least binding and ten being the most binding. The more binding a contract is the more fine print is being concealed.
With other delivery processes where the Owner pays out money to the GC before the work is completed, the church subjects themselves to a high degree of risk of ever getting back this money if termination is executed.
Look for contracts that:
Build Teams
Creates Commitment
One Contract that binds all the disciplines
Has A Flexible Termination Clause
Offers Value Added Benefits: for the right to be Full Service
Spells Out Responsibilities of Myler and Owner
Open Book
Accountability: single source, no finger pointing, no excuse
Life has never been nor ever will be about minimal commitment. Commitment has been woven within the fabric of creation and nobody can be successful without it.
