Hello Chuck,
responsibility of the Council under the proposed model and would add to your examples the following: ensuring that policy development work complies with Bylaws restrictions defining consensus policy development (a change recommended in the recommendations) or, if the work does not apply as possible consensus policy development, making that clear to the working group in advance and throughout the process as needed.
This has been a discussion that has been happening in a few forums. I have recommended that we distinguish between: "GNSO Policy Recommendations" which generally refer to a policy for implementation by ICANN staff (e.g new gTLDs, registry service approval process, procedures for conflicts with national laws and ICANN contracts with respect to WHOIS etc). And "GNSO Policy Recommendations for new Consensus Policies" which are policies that are binding on registries and registrars. The defined term "Consensus Policies" is related to the contracts with registrars and registries, and such policies will be binding on registrars and registries (e.g Transfers Policy, WHOIS data reminder policy). As Chuck has stated, it is important to establish expectations clearly at the beginning of a PDP on what category the recommendations are likely to fall into, and at the conclusion of the PDP it should also be clear whether the recommendations are within the definition of "Consensus Policies". Unfortunately the term "consensus" has two meanings in the GNSO and ICANN. One definition relates to the degree of support for particular recommendations (ie did the GNSO reach "consensus" on this recommendation?), and the other definition relates to the contractual term in the gTLD agreements (ie is the policy a "Consensus Policy" as defined in the registry/registrar agreement?). There is also a need to consider defining the scope of the GNSO with respect to areas of policy development to provide more clarity for the community. Some of the language developed in registry/registrar agreements may be relevant. E.g "issues for which uniform or coordinated resolution is reasonably necessary to facilitate interoperability, Security and/or Stability of the Internet or DNS; " "resolution of disputes regarding the registration of domain names (as opposed to the use of such domain names)." Etc Regards, Bruce And GNSO P