Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting at Eurocrypt 2003
************************ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ************************
The IACR Board of Directors met on May 4 and 6, 2003 during Eurocrypt
2003 in Warsaw. Reports were presented on the
disposition of Crypto 2002 and status of Eurocrypt 2003, Crypto 2003,
Asiacrypt 2003, and Eurocrypt 2004.
Additional reports were presented on the status of the IACR Newsletter,
web site, and ePrint Archive, the Journal of
Cryptology, the Archivist's work, and IACR finances.
Special reports were presented on IT Strategy and Elections Issues.
The Board appointed an Election Committee consisting of Hughes, Preneel,
and Wright.
The Board accepted a proposal to hold Eurocrypt 2005 in Aarhus, Denmark
with Ivan Damgaard as General Chair.
The Board voted to ask Ron Cramer to serve as Eurocrypt 2005 Program
Chair.
The Board accepted a proposal to hold FSE 2004 in New Delhi, India.
The Board accepted a proposal to hold PKC 2005 in Switzerland.
The Board voted to ask Ivan Damgaard and Joan Feigenbaum to serve as
initial members of the IACR Fellows Selection
Committee.
************************ DETAILED MINUTES ************************
Board of Directors Meeting
Eurocrypt
Warsaw
4 May 2003
Board President Clark called the meeting to order at 10:10.
Present were Benaloh, Berson, Biham, Camenisch, Clark, Desmedt,
Gawinecki, Hughes, Knudsen, Langford, Laih, Maurer,
Preneel, and Quisquater.
Proxies were held for Cachin by Camenish, for McCurley by Berson, for
Wright by Benaloh, for Rose by Langford, by
Chang by Laih, for Kim by Dawson, for Dawson by Matsumoto, and for
Matsumoto by Clark.
________________________________________________________________________
Clark reviewed the agenda and noted that the status report for Crypto
2003 would be delayed until the arrival of Rose.
Maurer asked that information on the Theory of Cryptography Conference
be included in "other business".
________________________________________________________________________
The minutes of the August 2002 Board Meeting were approved without
change or objection.
________________________________________________________________________
Clark then reported on open action items. He reported that Beaver was
working to complete an update of the IACR
database, that a color version of the IACR logo had been completed, that
a draft of the minutes of the August 2002
Board Meeting had been completed and circulated within 8 weeks of the
meeting, that conference attendance numbers had
been sent to Treasurer Langford, that Newsletter Editor Cachin would be
reporting recommendations, and that McCurley
would be reporting on the status of the Springer-Verlag contract. He
also reported that recommendations for
modifications to General Chair Guidelines be sent to Preneel, that
Program Chair Guidelines recommendations be sent to
Knudsen, and that Desmedt would be making recommendations on IACR
conference sizes. He also indicated that he had
sent a letter to the Library of Congress regarding the IACR position on
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and had
contacted Harvard internet law professor John Paulfrey regarding the
issue.
________________________________________________________________________
The Membership Secretary report was cancelled due to Beaver's absence.
________________________________________________________________________
Eurocrypt 2003 General Chair Gawinecki then reported on the status of
the conference.
He said that lunches would be held in the Gala Congresawa, that coffee
breaks would be held outside of the lecture
hall, and that a wireless LAN had been set up. Gawinecki noted that the
conference venue was in the center of Warsaw
and that multiple sponsors had been obtained to defray costs. He added
that as of May 4 there had been 338
registrations (including 22 students) -- down somewhat due to SARS --
and that he expected about 40 additional
registrants. Gawinecki said that the proceedings had arrived but that
receipts for registrants had been delayed. He
noted the availability of Internet access and made special mention of
the Presidential sponsorship that the conference
had received. He also suggested that delegates be careful walking near
the conference venue after dark.
________________________________________________________________________
Newsletter Editor Cachin's report was circulated by e-mail.
Desmedt asserted the view that the ePrint archive should not be
refereed, and Hughes concurred. Clark then reminded
the Board of prior discussions on this topic, and Preneel observed that
some submissions are disparaging.
Clark then asked for a sense of the Board on the running of the ePrint
archive and received a high sense of approval.
Biham then expressed his opinion that there should be no refereeing of
ePrint submissions whatsoever -- even if this
resulted in some very poor papers.
Clark then reminded the Board that the ePrint archive managers work on a
volunteer basis on behalf of the IACR and
requested that they be given latitude.
________________________________________________________________________
Journal Editor-in-Chief Maurer's report was circulated by e-mail and
included his expression of unhappiness regarding
the necessity to hound referees.
Berson suggested that Editors who do not reply should be removed from
the Editorial Board, and Clark asserted that it
was up to Maurer as to how to manage the Editorial Board.
________________________________________________________________________
IACR Archivist Orman's report was circulated by e-mail.
Clark noted that the organization of this Eurocrypt required that the
General Chair be given power of attorney, that
IACR articles of association were required, and that much time, effort,
and money were required. He suggested that
such factors be taken into consideration in evaluating future Eurocrypt
proposals.
Preneel asked that a specific location be set up to send copies of
proceedings and other relevant materials to the
Archivist.
________________________________________________________________________
At 11:00, the Board recessed for a ten-minute break.
The Board reconvened at 11:10.
________________________________________________________________________
Crypto 2002 General Chair Wright's report was circulated by e-mail.
________________________________________________________________________
An IT Strategy Report by McCurley was circulated by e-mail.
Clark summarized that McCurley had investigated the viability of better
database management, electronic registration,
e-mailing of IACR announcements, and provision of electronic services
for Program Committees and had also done
associated code development. He said that McCurley would have a
demonstration available for the Crypto conference.
Desmedt suggested that McCurley not do this work entirely on his own.
Clark noted that the IACR Secretariat had become responsible for the
management of three annual conferences and two
annual workshops and suggested avoiding overburdening the Secretariat.
He added that the role of the Board was to
decide on the business (not technical) case.
Hughes noted that this work would not replace the role of the
Secretariat and offered to help with the process.
Clark asked for a report at the Crypto 2003 Board Meeting on the
business case and risks associated with the
recommendations of the initial report.
Berson expressed a concern about an excessive reliance on McCurley to
maintain the code, and Clark responded that
ownership and maintenance were issues that needed to be addressed.
Preneel expressed the view that the business case was clear if mailing
costs for the IACR were $20,000 annually.
________________________________________________________________________
Treasurer Langford then delivered a report on IACR finances.
She said that as of December 31, 2002, IACR assets included
approximately $206,000 in certificates of deposit,
approximately $279,000 in a checking account, and approximately $140,000
held by the Secretariat. She noted that this
sum was larger than typical because of pending payments to
Springer-Verlag, the Secretariat, and expected losses of
about $100,000 for Eurocrypt 2003. She estimated a total surplus at the
end of 2002 of approximately $305,000.
Langford said that Eurocrypt 2002 had returned an approximate $23,000
surplus, Crypto 2002 had returned an approximate
$17,000 surplus, and that Asiacrypt 2002 had suffered an approximate
$15,000 loss. She noted that the IACR surplus at
the end of 2001 had been approximately $376,000.
Clark asked about the plans for the Membership Meeting, and Langford
said that she would describe the hard times being
faced by the IACR.
Clark noted that the break even point for Eurocrypt 2003 had been set at
400 delegates, and Langford noted that the
$100,000 anticipated loss included losses due to currency fluctuation
from which IACR has benefited in the past.
Clark then observed that Asiacrypt 2002 had suffered from lower
attendance and currency fluctuation and thanked
Asiacrypt 2002 General Chair Wolfe for his efforts in minimizing losses.
He also encouraged attendance of Asiacrypt
2003.
Preneel suggested separating currency fluctuation from surplus and loss
calculations.
Clark suggested requiring a break-out of both anticipated and actual
expenses in future conferences and suggested that
electronic registration might facilitate payments in local currencies.
Preneel re-iterated his desire to have currency fluctuation separated
from other expenses, and Clark suggested that it
had been a bad year and that conservative planning would be required.
________________________________________________________________________
Berson then initiated a discussion on the financial health of the IACR.
He suggested that methods may be available to
reduce costs, increase income, reduce risk, and/or boost attendance, and
that Board should make explicit decisions as
to which directions to follow.
Clark noted that the cost that the cost of mailings -- especially
membership list mailings -- was quite high and
suggested planning for lower conference attendance.
Desmedt expressed the opinion that paper mailings should be eliminated,
but Hughes asked if this would present a
hardship to members in less connected locales.
Biham asked how often members change their electronic addresses, and
Benaloh expressed the concern that e-mail could
get be regarded as spam and be lost.
Clark suggested exploring lower break-even attendance numbers for
conferences, and Hughes asked whether General Chairs
must accommodate larger numbers of delegates and suggested that
university venues be considered.
Preneel noted that Eurocrypt 2005 proposals had fixed costs in the range
of $60,000 to $70,000 with roughly one third
of the costs going to facilities -- mostly in the form of lunches for
delegates.
Berson expressed a preference for risking turning potential delegates
away rather than risking paying for excess
facilities.
Desmedt asked about the costs from Springer-Verlag, and Biham indicated
that proceedings were ordered after the early
registration deadline.
Camenisch expressed the view that savings due to a reduced hall size
would not be significant.
Clark summarized the mood as in favor of planning for smaller attendance
and considering capping attendance where
necessary.
Berson asked about eliminating mailing of the membership list. Clark
responded that an explicit choice had been made
to not make the membership list available to members in electronic form
and that steps had been taken to make it
difficult to scan. Clark suggested that it might be time to reconsider
this policy and suggested mailing the
membership list as a CD or making it downloadable (perhaps, in either
case, with some kind of watermark).
Preneel suggested that other mail to members be sent electronically, and
Maurer suggested that the IACR charge for
paper copies. Clark then asked for a sense of the Board about whether
to make the membership list available in
electronic form and the general sense was that it should be done to save
costs.
Clark then asked about electronic conference registration mailings, and
Hughes suggested that post cards be used
during transition to which there was general agreement although Preneel
asked if post cards would save much over full
mailings.
Clark expressed the view that one mailing per conference should suffice,
and Berson suggested maintaining conference
mailings to maintain attendance.
Clark expressed a desire to avoid excessive registration fees and
maintain student discounts. He then set an action
item to discuss membership list mailings during the Membership Meeting.
Camenisch noted that Program Committee meetings have budgets around
$10,000, but Biham indicated that most of these
funds were usually not spent and encouraged not cutting this item.
________________________________________________________________________
The status report on Crypto 2003 was deferred to await the arrival of
Crypto 2003 General Chair Rose.
________________________________________________________________________
Asiacrypt 2003 General Chair Laih then reported on the status of the
conference.
Laih said that the conference web site had been active since December of
2002 and that the conference would be held in
Taipei, Taiwan from November 30 through December 4. He said that the
Chinese Cryptology and Information Security
Association would be a major sponsor and noted the venue of the Grand
Hotel in Taipei. Laih noted that the 2003 IACR
Distinguished Lecture would be delivered by Don Coppersmith and that
invited talks would be given by Adi Shamir and
Hong-Sen Yan.
Concerns were expressed that SARS might reduce the number of papers
submitted, and confidence was expressed that the
Asiacrypt 2003 organizing committee would manage the situation wisely.
________________________________________________________________________
Eurocrypt 2004 General Chair Camenisch then reported on the status of
the conference.
Camenisch said that the registration fees had risen from $580 to $743
with a break-even point set at 350 attendees
including 50 students. He said that cost increases were due to changes
in exchange rates and the cost of mailings.
Maurer expressed the view that the meal costs were exorbitant and
Desmedt suggested eliminating the lunches to which
Maurer concurred. Benaloh expresses the view that less elaborate
lunches would be fine but that lunches should be
maintained.
________________________________________________________________________
Clark reported that the Asiacrypt Steering Committee had met in New
Zealand and that Asiacrypt 2005 planning was on
schedule.
________________________________________________________________________
Clark reported that electronic versions of the IACR logo had been
updated and that both grayscale and color versions
were available.
________________________________________________________________________
An Election Committee was appointed consisting of Hughes, Preneel, and
Wright. Hughes offered to serve as returning
officer.
________________________________________________________________________
Clark reported that Springer-Verlag had agreed to stop including its
copyright notice in IACR publications.
________________________________________________________________________
The Board recessed for lunch at 12:50.
The Board reconvened at 13:31.
________________________________________________________________________
The Board then heard proposals to host Eurocrypt 2005 in Denmark,
Hungary, and Russia.
************************************************************************
The Board then voted to accept the proposal to hold Eurocrypt 2005 in
Aarhus, Denmark with Ivan Damgaard as General
Chair.
************************************************************************
************************************************************************
The Board then voted to ask Ron Cramer to serve as Eurocrypt 2005
Program Chair. [Cramer subsequently agreed to serve
in this role.]
************************************************************************
________________________________________________________________________
Preneel then reported on the status of FSE 2004 in New Delhi, India.
________________________________________________________________________
************************************************************************
The Board then voted to approve the FSE 2004 proposal in New Delhi,
India by a count of 12-0 with 3 abstentions.
************************************************************************
________________________________________________________________________
Desmedt then reported on the status of PKC 2004 in Singapore and PKC
2005 in Switzerland.
________________________________________________________________________
************************************************************************
The Board then voted to approve the PKC 2005 proposal in Switzerland by
a count of 12-0 with 5 abstentions.
************************************************************************
________________________________________________________________________
Preneel then asked for the sense of the Board on the possibility of
co-locating FSE with PKC in 2005. The sense of
the Board seemed to be that this was up to the FSE Steering Committee.
________________________________________________________________________
Desmedt then raised the issue of parallel sessions in IACR conferences
and was asked and agreed to bring a specific
proposal before the Board.
________________________________________________________________________
************************************************************************
The Board then voted to ask Ivan Damgaard and Joan Feigenbaum to serve
as founding members of the IACR Fellow
Selection Committee. [Both Damgaard and Feigenbaum subsequently agreed
to serve in this role.]
************************************************************************
________________________________________________________________________
Maurer then announced the establishment of a new Theoretical
Cryptography Conference (TCC) to be held in February 2004
at M.I.T. with proceedings to be published in the Springer-Verlag
Lecture Notes in Computer Science series.
Maurer asked if copyrights could be assigned to the IACR. Clark
responded that this would require the approval of
Springer-Verlag. Maurer then asked if copyrights could be assigned to
the IACR if Springer-Verlag approved, and Clark
voiced the apparent consensus of the Board saying that this would be
fine but that the IACR had no intention of
opening new negotiations with Springer-Verlag.
________________________________________________________________________
Clark then reported that the Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems
(CHES) workshop was seeking IACR sponsorship
commencing in 2004. The proposed terms would include IACR membership
for CHES delegates, copyright assignment to the
IACR, and the CHES Steering Committee retaining primary control of the
workshop.
It was agreed that this proposal would be discussed further at the
Crypto 2003 Board Meeting.
________________________________________________________________________
Rose arrived at this point.
________________________________________________________________________
Desmedt then reported on issues surrounding the 2002 IACR elections.
Desmedt suggested that the mailing procedure for ballots be improved,
that a deadline be instituted for amendments to
the By-Laws, that the Election Committee Chair Guidelines be updated,
and that electronic elections be explored.
________________________________________________________________________
Crypto 2003 General Chair Rose then reported on the status of the
conference.
Rose said that preparations were going well and that a break-even point
of 325 delegates had been set.
________________________________________________________________________
An agenda for the Membership Meeting was then set to include discussion
of election procedures, SARS concerns
regarding Asiacrypt 2003, and mailing of membership lists and a report
from the Treasurer.
________________________________________________________________________
Action items included informing FSE and PKC Steering Committees of Board
actions, establishing the IACR Fellows
Steering Committee, and working with the IACR Secretariat on timely
mailings.
________________________________________________________________________
The meeting adjourned at 14:45.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
A supplemental Board Meeting was called to order by IACR President Clark
at 13:26 of May 6 to discuss and vote on the
IT proposal presented at the regular Board Meeting.
In attendance were Benaloh, Berson, Biham, Camenisch, Clark, Desmedt,
Hughes, Knudsen, Langford, Maurer, Quisquater,
Preneel, and Rose.
The executive summary of the proposal included the purchase of a
dedicated IACR machine for no more than $2,500 and
hosting services of approximately $250 per month (in contrast to the
current hosting fees of approximately $80 per
month). The dedicated machine would host the IACR web site, archive,
mailing list, database, on-line registration
services, and on-line Program Committee review system.
Desmedt asked why this would cost $250 per month, and Clark responded
that this would be necessary for the enhanced
services provided.
Rose asked what would happen if and when the machine gets hacked, and
Clark responded that a risk analysis would be
necessary.
Hughes noted that the additional costs would allow for credit card
processing, and Langford stated that the
Secretariat costs were approximately $40,000 per year. Clark added that
this should reduce the workload on the
Secretariat and allow for a reduction in costs, and Langford noted that
IACR would need to enlist a professional
conference organizer if this proposal was not enacted.
Maurer noted that continued maintenance could be an issue.
************************************************************************
A motion was made by Berson and seconded by Hughes to ask for a report
to the Board at the August meeting on the
status of going forward for Eurocrypt 2004. The motion was approved
unanimously.
************************************************************************
________________________________________________________________________
The agenda of the Membership Meeting was then discussed.
Langford stated plans to give a financial report detailing status
through the end of 2002. Clark would then describe
the current losses resulting from reduced attendance. Langford would
then take questions on finances, and Clark would
report on upcoming conferences. Clark would also report on the Journal
of Cryptology, the IACR Newsletter, the new
contract with Springer-Verlag, copyrights, the Springer-Verlag Link
service, cost containment, and the possibility of
changing membership lists from paper to electronic form. Clark would
speak on issues regarding SARS and Asiacrypt
2003 and on the IT plans for the IACR.
Berson asked if it was too soon to report on IT, and Clark responded
that it was mentioned at Crypto 2002. Langford
indicated that she would prefer to not yet commit to on-line
registration.
________________________________________________________________________
Desmedt suggested that the IACR seek NSF support and sponsorship, and
Berson took on an action item to explore this
possibility.
________________________________________________________________________
The supplemental meeting was adjourned at 13:48.
________________________________________________________________________
Respectfully submitted
Josh Benaloh
IACR Secretary
[ IACR home page |
IACR Newsletter page and archive |
This issue
]
© IACR