Hi, During last night's meeting I was trying to understand the relation between PDP consensus policy and contractual arrangements. I realize that this is a less then favored subject, and I apologize for holding up the progress of the meeting with my question last night and apologize if this message causes further distress. I want to see if what I understand, I understand correctly, and I want to clear up areas where I am still confused. And while I did hear Bruce's explanation, the quality of the line made it difficult to follow completely, and I did not want to interfere with the meeting further by asking the questions at that time. In my looking at it, I see at least two different questions: - what can the council propose consensus policy on - the relation between consensus policy and contracts, of which there are three types: - existing - renewing - new - what the council can propose consensus policy on: If I understand correctly, the GNSO council can propose policy, assuming it follows the procedures, on just about anything related to gTLDs that can be shown to be relevant under the Bylaws of 8apr05 Article 1. And the Board is empowered to approve policy, once presented by the GNSO council after all appropriate procedures, on anything interpreted as coming under the Mission as understood in the context of the Values. This include the principles of public accountability, fairness, competitiveness, and transparency etc as well as 'preserving and enhancing the operational stability, reliability, security, and global interoperability of the Internet.' And if I understand correctly, the subjective qualities of 'feasible and appropriate' are put in several of the clauses to give the board, the council and the community flexibility in interpreting article 1 - though I am curious as to how these are determined given the relative nature of such appraisals - is the board the jury that must apply the 'reasonable man' criteria. - to what degree is consensus policy applicable to existing contracts and to what degree are existing contracts applicable to the creation of consensus policy? If I understand correctly, the nature or content of current contracts or the clauses in those contracts relating to consensus policy have _no_ effect on which policies can be created and approved, but only affect the degree to which new consensus policies can be applied during the term of that contract. And, as these exclusions from consensus policy clauses are somewhat different in every contract, no general statement can be made about which consensus policies are applicable to the full set of current contracts. - to what degree do consensus policies affect contracts in the process of renewal? On this I am still confused. (at least I know I am confused here, obviously if I am wrong about what I wrote above, then I am also confused about that) When a new contract is being negotiated what is the relationship between existing consensus policy, esp. policy that was created between the time the contract was originally negotiated and the time of renewal, and the renewal. Does policy created during the term of the expiring contract have effect on the contract being renewed or on the clauses in that contract relating to exemptions from consensus policy? - to what degree are negotiations on new contracts bound by consensus policy? I am also confused on this. Does consensus policy determine the nature and content of new contracts negotiated by ICANN staff. Can the negotiators put in clauses exempting the signatories from existing consensus policy as awell as future consensus policy? Can consensus policy that is in effect at the time of negotiation, have an effect on the clauses in the contract that relate to the effect of future consensus policy on the contract conditions? I.e Could there be a consensus policy that said future contracts could not exempt the signatories from a particular consensus policy? I hope my questions do not disturb the debate on the TOR itself or on the important work to come up with recommendations about the creation of new gTLDs. It is just that the contribution by the registry constituency got me thinking about the full extent of the influence, and relevance, of consensus policy. I also apologize for not managing to understand the full issue from what I have read and from what was explained during last night's meeting. thanks a.