The last teleconference of the GNSO council (in which I participated with proxies from Jisuk Woo and Carlos Afonso) was fully dedicated to the terms of reference for the PDP on what, I call for short, ICANN and registries which change services. The text of the terms of refernce was revised during the conference. The Council decided to deal with the issue itself directly, without a task force. (In other words: The council is the task force.) All constituencies' reps in the council, except the registries, voted in favour for the PDP. Background information is in the report of the ICANN staff (plus a FAQ): http://www.icann.org/gnso/issue-reports/registry-svcs-report-19nov03.htm In a separate message I will send an invitation to comment on the topic, which will include the terms of reference. The NCUC will have to come up with a text, a summary of comments, before January 12. Originally a date of January 5 was set, following the PDP-rules. With support of Marilyn Cade of the Business Constituency I convinced the chair of the council, Bruce Tonkin, to give us a week more in this time of the year.