Phase 0 — Pre-Formation Gate

This is the single most important letter in the entire formation effort. It asks CPD, in writing, to tell the Founding Committee whether a separately registered 63rd Street Beach Park Advisory Council can exist at all, given that the beach sits inside Jackson (Andrew) Park and CPD's current Advisory Council Guidelines recognize only one registered PAC per park — a park that already has the Jackson Park Advisory Council (JPAC). Nothing downstream (Letter of Intent, membership drive, bylaws, elections, incorporation) should be represented publicly as CPD-recognized PAC formation until this comes back in writing.

Draft letter

Once a response is received, its content and date go into G0-04 (CPD-Approved Representation Structure Memorandum) and this row's status updates from "Draft ready to send" to "Sent [date]" to "Answered [date] — see G0-04." Do not send this letter in isolation — see the coordination note above and confirm with the Track A lead that NP-01/NP-16 are either attached, already sent, or deliberately being held until after this response.

Defines exactly what this council proposes to advise on — deliberately narrow, so it reads as a genuine site-specific complement to JPAC's park-wide role rather than a competing claim over Jackson Park as a whole.

Proposed scope — included

• The 63rd Street Beach sand and designated swim zone
• The 63rd Street Beach House (historic structure, event/rental space, restrooms, showers)
• The lakefront promenade directly fronting the beach
• The accessible beach walk and beach wheelchair access point
• The non-motorized boat launch
• The designated distance-swim area
• The dunes / natural area supporting migratory birds, immediately adjacent to the beach
• Adjacent paths and parking directly serving beach visitors
• The established cultural-programming footprint (including the longstanding beach drumming gathering area)

Explicitly excluded — remains Jackson Park / JPAC scope

• The Jackson Park golf course and driving range
• The Music Court, Perennial Garden, and Wooded Island / Osaka Garden
• Jackson Park's broader lagoon, harbor, and inland pathway systems not directly serving the beach
• Any other Jackson Park facility not listed as "included" above

The final version of this map is drawn and reviewed jointly with CPD once G0-01 gets a response, and the confirmed boundary becomes part of the CPD-Approved Representation Structure Memorandum (G0-04). A simple annotated aerial/plan-view graphic should accompany the text version published here once available.

This is the crux of Gate 0. It exists so the Founding Committee — and CPD — can see the actual jurisdictional tension in writing rather than discover it mid-process.

The existing council

The Jackson Park Advisory Council (JPAC) is the currently recognized Park Advisory Council for Jackson (Andrew) Park, the park within which 63rd Street Beach is located. JPAC publishes its mission and governance information and its meeting minutes and records publicly, and, per current publicly available material, has an amended set of bylaws (most recently amended December 2, 2024). JPAC's recognized scope is Jackson Park as a whole, which on its face includes 63rd Street Beach.

The rule, verbatim — from both sides

This is not a paraphrase or an inference. CPD's own current (Feb. 14, 2025) Park Advisory Council Guidelines state: "The Park District recognizes only one (1) registered PAC per park." JPAC's own current bylaws state the identical rule from the other side: "JPAC acknowledges that each park shall have only one registered Park Advisory Council, and that there shall be no joint Park Advisory Councils or combined representation." Both the regulator and the incumbent council agree on the rule in writing; there is no reading of current source material under which a second, fully independent, separately-registered PAC for 63rd Street Beach is assumed to already exist or to be a foregone conclusion.

The tension

Current CPD Advisory Council Guidelines describe PACs as the community voice for parks, playgrounds, beaches, and natural areas — language that, read alone, could support a beach-specific council. The same guidelines state that CPD recognizes only one registered PAC per park. Both statements are simultaneously true in CPD's current materials, and they point in different directions for a site like 63rd Street Beach: distinctive enough (historic Beach House, accessible shoreline infrastructure, non-motorized launch, distance-swim area, dune/migratory-bird natural area, and a fifty-plus-year cultural drumming tradition) to arguably justify its own dedicated advisory body, while sitting inside a park that already has one.

Why this matters before any other formation step

If the Founding Committee proceeds with a Letter of Intent, membership drive, election, and Illinois incorporation as though a separate 63rd Street Beach PAC is already CPD-recognized, and CPD's eventual determination is "no, this remains under JPAC" or "this becomes a sub-council," the group risks having built governance infrastructure (bylaws, elected officers, a bank account) around a legal status it doesn't actually hold — and risks appearing to CPD, JPAC, and any outside audience (including elected officials) as having presumed an outcome that wasn't theirs to presume.

Three realistic outcomes

• Separate recognition. CPD determines 63rd Street Beach's distinct facilities and programming justify a second, separately registered PAC coexisting with JPAC, likely with a coordination protocol (see G0-05).
• Sub-council / committee under JPAC. This organizing effort continues as a 63rd Street Beach committee operating under JPAC's existing recognition, with its own working structure but not its own CPD registration.
• Independent community organization. If CPD declines any PAC-affiliated structure, this effort continues as an independent "Friends of 63rd Street Beach" organization — still able to fundraise, volunteer, and advocate, but not as a CPD-recognized PAC, and without using PAC terminology in a way that implies that status.

Coordination with Track A (park recognition)

This memo resolves the tension between BBPAC and JPAC. It does not, by itself, resolve a second tension: Track B's G0-01 asks CPD a PAC-jurisdiction question while Track A's NP-01 and NP-16 ask a broader park-classification question. Both originate from the same Founding Committee and are addressed to overlapping parts of CPD (Park Supervisor/Area Manager/LCA for G0-01; Planning & Development and Law for NP-01/NP-16). Treat this as a fourth possible source of jurisdictional confusion, alongside the JPAC question above, and resolve it the same way: in writing, before either request goes out, not after CPD notices two related asks arriving separately.

Recommendation

Send G0-01 now, attach the boundary map (G0-02) and this memo, and request a direct conversation with CPD and, ideally, JPAC leadership before proceeding to Phase 1. Before sending, confirm with the Track A lead whether NP-01/NP-16 are going out at the same time, already sent, or intentionally held — and reference that status in the letter (see the disclosure paragraph now included in G0-01) so CPD receives one coordinated picture of this effort rather than two unlinked requests. Every public-facing description of this effort in the meantime — including this website — should reflect that recognition status is pending, not assumed.

This document doesn't exist in final form yet — it can't, until CPD responds to G0-01. What follows is the template it will be recorded in, so that whatever CPD decides is captured permanently, in writing, in one place.

Template

• Date of CPD determination: [pending]
• CPD contact and title providing the determination: [pending]
• Determination: [separate PAC / sub-council under JPAC / adopted-site arrangement / other — pending]
• Approved geographic/facility scope: [references the final version of G0-02]
• Conditions attached, if any: [pending]
• Effective date: [pending]
• Next required step per CPD: [pending]

Once completed, this memorandum controls how every later document in this library refers to this organization's status, and it is retained permanently in the Corporate Records Book / Minute Book (see Phase 5) and the PAC Binder (see Phase 6).

Triggered only if CPD's determination (G0-04) permits a separate or specialized 63rd Street Beach body alongside JPAC. Its purpose is to make coordination the default, not an afterthought.

Sections this MOU should contain once activated

• Purpose and scope — reaffirms the boundary from G0-02 and JPAC's continuing park-wide role.
• Referral process — how each council routes issues that touch the other's area to the right body.
• Shared-issue coordination — natural areas, lakefront-wide advocacy, capital requests affecting both, joint CPD meetings.
• Event coordination — avoiding scheduling conflicts or duplicated CPD Activity Requests for shared-interest programming.
• Non-duplication clause — neither council represents itself as speaking for the other's recognized scope.
• Review cycle and amendment process.
• Signatures — both councils' presidents, with CPD copied.

The internal roadmap for the whole formation effort — what this project is, who decides what, and by when.

Formation goal

Resolve CPD jurisdiction (Gate 0), then form a recognized, well-governed advisory body for 63rd Street Beach — whether that turns out to be a separate PAC, a JPAC sub-council, or an independent community organization — capable of supporting stewardship, accessibility, cultural programming, and community voice at the beach.

Decision authority (interim, pre-bylaws)

• Founding Committee: day-to-day formation decisions, document drafting, outreach.
• Full interested-residents group (G0-07 roster): consulted at major milestones (Letter of Intent, election notice, bylaws draft).
• No individual or subgroup represents this effort to CPD, elected officials, or media without Founding Committee awareness.

Milestones (indicative — dates to be filled in as CPD response and internal capacity allow)

• Gate 0 resolved (CPD written determination received)
• Letter of Intent submitted
• Initial community meeting held
• Bylaws drafted and adopted
• Officer elections held
• Illinois not-for-profit incorporation filed
• CPD registration package submitted
• CPD recognition confirmed

Workstreams and owners

• Legal / Fiscal — incorporation, EIN, banking, 501(c)(3)/fiscal sponsor decision
• Governance — bylaws, policies, elections
• Membership / Outreach — community notice, applications, roster
• Communications — this website's Organization section, public notices
• Stewardship — beach/dune relationship-building with CPD Natural Areas staff

A working contact list for formation outreach — deliberately separate from the official CPD Membership Application records (Phase 1), which have their own retention and access rules.

Fields

• Name
• Preferred contact (email/phone)
• Area of interest (stewardship, events, governance, cultural programming, accessibility, etc.)
• Date added
• Formation role, if any (e.g., Founding Committee, outreach volunteer)
• Notes

Access: restricted to the Secretary and Membership Lead; not published; not used as a general mailing list without separate opt-in (see the Communications phase's mailing-list consent record once drafted).

One place for every CPD relationship this effort depends on. Verified at least annually, since CPD staff assignments change.

Fields

• Park Supervisor (Jackson Park / 63rd Street Beach)
• Area Manager
• Department of Legislative and Community Affairs (LCA) contact — 312-742-2797, lca@chicagoparkdistrict.com
• Aquatics / beach operations contact
• Natural Areas / Community Stewardship Program contact
• Permits / Activity Request contact
• Each entry: name, title, email, phone, last verified date

Two names are in use right now, deliberately: "63rd Street Beach Park Advisory Council" is the formal working name used in CPD-facing correspondence and this governance library, matching the naming convention CPD's Advisory Council Guidelines expect. "Bongo Beach PAC" is this website's public-facing, community-friendly name, referencing the beach's longstanding drumming tradition — used on selassiefest.com's /bbpac/ section, its social presence, and community materials.

Naming rules going forward

• Any CPD filing, letter, or registration document uses the formal working name.
• Public materials may use "Bongo Beach PAC" but should make the formal name discoverable (e.g., in a footer or "about" line), so the two are never presented as different organizations.
• Nothing in either name may state or imply that this organization is the Chicago Park District, an office of the Park District, or an already-CPD-recognized PAC while Gate 0 is unresolved.
• Before Illinois incorporation, the Governance Lead must confirm the formal name's availability with the Illinois Secretary of State's business name search.

A version-controlled file of the actual controlling sources every later document in this library is drafted from — so nothing here is drafted from memory or an outdated copy.

Sources to hold, each with a "last checked" date

• Current CPD Advisory Council Guidelines (chicagoparkdistrict.com/advisory-councils and the linked current PDF)
• Current CPD PAC Code of Conduct
• CPD's 63rd Street Beach and Jackson (Andrew) Park facility pages, and the 63rd Street Beach Dunes / Natural Area page
• CPD Beaches and Natural Areas Rules & FAQ pages
• CPD Community Stewardship Program materials
• Current CPD Membership Application, Registration Form, Officer Update Form, and Partnership Pledge
• Illinois Secretary of State not-for-profit filing materials (Articles of Incorporation, Annual Report)
• Illinois Attorney General charitable registration materials
• Model bylaws referenced for drafting: Jackson Park Advisory Council (amended December 2024), Horner Park Advisory Council (adopted March 8, 2024), Welles Park Advisory Council (revised January 2020)

See Phase 5 for the formal Source Verification / Authority Log template (document 11-100) that will track exact URLs, publication dates, and last-checked dates for every source above once that phase is drafted.