What a feasibility study actually covers
A feasibility study answers one question before money is committed: can this project work, on this site, for this community, at a budget we can defend? It is not a design, and it is not a sales document. It is the evidence a board needs before it approves design spending.
A thorough study typically covers the site and any existing building, the program (what rooms and capacities are actually needed), the constraints (zoning, permitting, access, and communal requirements), and a preliminary budget frame. What it should not do is promise a final price before design exists — that comes later, as a real itemized quote.
For a board, the value is decision-grade: after a study, the choice is no longer "should we do something?" but "do we proceed on these terms, revise the program, or pause?" Any of those is a legitimate outcome of a good study.
The board's role in a building decision
A board's job in a building project is not to become the design team. It is to set the program, approve the budget frame, appoint decision-makers who can answer promptly, and hold the project to the quote it approved. Projects stall most often when decision authority is unclear — when every choice must return to a full board, or when no one is empowered to sign off.
Three practices help: name one or two decision contacts; agree the budget frame and what triggers a return to the board; and require itemized quotes at each major stage, so approval is of a document, not a conversation. PRIMER's role is to give the board those documents in time to read them — and to keep rabbinic and communal authority with the client's own authorities throughout.
Take the printable discussion summary to your next meeting: it turns these points into a one-page agenda.
