I would like to request two friendly amendments to the Vertical Integration Charter that we will be voting on during the upcoming Council meeting. It's understood that the definitions were intended to be a work in progress, but I feel it's important that we have a common and clear understanding of what's intended at the outset as well as ongoing. 1. Friendly amendment to definition of "Vertical Integration" Based on the current Registry Agreements and the one proposed in the current version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook, the term Registry Operator refers to the entity under contract to ICANN. Therefore, in the definition of "Vertial Integration" replace the phrase "domain name supplier" with "Registry Operator" and the phrase "independent firms" with "non-affiliated registrars." The term "Registry Operator" would use upper case letters as shown. The definition would then read: "Vertical Integration" (VI) is defined as a business structure in which there is no separation between the Registry Operator and the registrar in relation to a particular gTLD. They are either owned or controlled by the same company or have another contractual affiliation that controls the specific gTLD, and the Registry Operator is not required to provide equivalent access and non-discriminatory access to non-affiliated registrars to sell names under its gTLD. 2. Friendly amendment to the section titled "Changes to this Charter" Council should emphasize that substantive changes to the Charter, including the working defninitions and milestones, need to be approved by the Council. Therefore, this section would be replaced with the following: The Chair of the WG will submit requests for substantive changes to this charter, including working definitions and milestones, to the GNSO Council for approval. The Chair may, at any time, refer questions or requests for clarification on any of the objectives or definitions contained in this charter to the GNSO Council. Such requests may be relayed through the Council Liaison. Tim