Actually, it seems that the term 'gatekeeper' is used in a manner that is inflammatory. If you mean that the Advisory Council (AC) has an ability to forward or not forward a policy proposal to the Board of Trustees (BoT), that role and duty has resided with the AC since its inception. In the last iteration (current) of the more formalized PDP, a petition process and thresholds for surmounting them...allowing an author to bypass the AC was introduced and that same feature remains in the new PDP process under discussion. The nuance, IMO, is that the proposals coming from whatever source will first go to the ARIN staff for review of language, grammar, and understandability in general. That a proposal would not pass this 'test', the disposition seems in doubt. The proposal says the author would have to petition to get it to the AC for review in its original state. Alternatives ask that this 'hurdle' be removed and in the event, the staff cannot convince the author to 'smith' the words to their understanding, the proposal might go directly to the AC rather than the petition process. I actually favor the later alternative, but I am most interested in hearing other input. I see very little concern otherwise. Bill Darte ARIN Advisory Council