IACR Board of Directors' Meeting Notes Eurocrypt 2008, Istanbul, Turkey ------------------------------- In attendence: James Hughes Shai Halevi Tom Berson Lynn Batten Yvo Desmedt A. Murat Apohan Christian Cachin David Pointcheval Helena Handschuh Alex May Tsutomu Matsumoto Serge Vaudenay Bart Preneel Ed Dawson Arjen Lenstra Tom Shrimpton Masahiro Mambo The meeting commenced at 10am in Istanbul. The members introduced themselves. President Preneel began by calling for additions to agenda Proxies: Lenstra for Stuart Haber Handschuh for Susan Langford and Antoine Joux Matsumoto for Kwangjo Kim Shrimpton for John Black Secretary Shrimpton called for additions/corrections to minutes from CRYPTO'07. Lenstra moved to accept the minutes as presented (Hughes second), and the motion passed unanimously. Preneel discussed the CRYPTO'07 action items list (marked "new" or "ongoing"). EC'08 GC report (Apohan) -------------------- GC Apohan explained that some financial difficulties are being caused by the slide in the dollar relative the euro (costs in euro but income in dollars). He said that he was working to protect the IACR from a loss. Preneel and Handschuh said any loss would be covered. There were 360 registered attendees at the time of the meeting (390 expected), which the GC considered low. However, he was happy to report that 25% of attendees from Turkey. Apohan thanked the IACR for support of local students, and Preneel thanked the GC for excellent work. [The final number of attendees was 386.] [In a subsequent email, Quisquater noted that RSA was in San Francisco the week before EC, and this probably contributed to lower numbers at EC.] Treasurer's report (Handschuh) ------------------------- Treasurer Handschuh's report was circulated via email beforehand. She brought up the Marconi Society's donation of 75,000 USD, and there was some discussion of how it should be spent. Some suggestions made by various board members were: o after the fact returns to students o better food o pay-forward from AC(yyyy) to AC(yyyy+1) There was a related discussion about 1 year turnover reserve vs. lower (2/3rds?) turnover reserve. Berson moved to accept notes as presented (Lenstra seconded); there was one abstention, all others were in favor. Newsletter report (Hughes) --------------------- Editor Hughes would like to see general chair emails (CFP, Reg open, Reg closed) turned into mini-newsletters. He also recommended changes to front page of IACR to reflect book reviews, conference reviews, and would like to investigate how to drive newsletter traffic to the website. Hughes asks, are there any problems with tracking website usage using something like Google analytics? (Minimal discussion followed.) JoC report (Preneel presents for Maurer) ------------------------------- Berson asks about finding a successor; Desmedt and Vaudenay offer to serve on a search committee (Preneel will appoint Maurer as well). The board would like a list of candidates by CRYPTO08 and proposal by end of 2008. Membership secretary (Halevi) ------------------------ Secretary Halevi reported that total membership trending up, but the number of attendees at conferences is trending down. There was some discussion about how solid are the statistics on this. Hughes offered to be maintainer of the replacement for cryptostats. There was some discussion of how to compile and coordinate information (discussion taken offline by Preneel). Archivist report (Preneel for Orman) ---------------------------- PKC08 has not yet responded request for final versions of papers (Halevi found them on the IACR server) Fellows committee (Preneel for Dwork) ------------------------------- New fellows will be announced at the EC membership meeting, and the induction ceremony will be held at CRYPTO08. 2007 Election committee (Berson) --------------------------- Berson reported that the 2007 elections went smoothly. 2009 Election committee (Preneel) ---------------------------- Cachin, Pointcheval and Hughes volunteered to become the new election committee. E-voting committee (Halevi) ---------------------- Halevi gave highlights of the committee's report (circulated previously by email). There was some discussion about the report and its conclusions. Desmedt recommends patience and caution; he echoed Rivest's warning that others will use e-voting as soon as the IACR does. Hughes and Halevi argued in favor of switching to e-voting. Berson noted that running a paper election is now easier than ever, but also that membership voting is lamentably low. He wondered if e-voting will change this. (Members noted that Rivest doubts this.) Cachin suggested experimenting with other systems (not the double-envelope method). Batton is in favor of e-voting, seeing it as an opportunity for testing and research. Handschuh provided input from Langford, who is against because it is likely to lead to policy discussions. Lenstra provided input from Haber, who is in favor but also suggests a strong public statement that the IACR not endorse e-voting for public elections. There was additional technical discussion. Preneel moves that E-voting committee should invite presentations of open source systems and freely available at CRYPTO08; Lenstra seconds. 1 against, 3 abstentions, all others in favor. Report on AC07 (Matsumoto for Kim) ----------------------------- Handschuh remarked that there was a great deal of sponsorship. Report on CRYPTO08 (Preneel for Langford) ---------------------------------- There will be no waivers to sign, except for soccer players. Various members suggest removing soccer from the CRYPTO agenda. Report on AC08 (Batten) ------------------- GC Batten gave an overview of arrangements, and reminded the board that visas are required in advance. Report for EC09 (May) ----------------- GC May reported that everything is on schedule. He remarked that currency fluctuations could result in a larger than expected registration fee in US dollars than was anticipated last year. (The fee will be fixed in January of 2009.) Steering Committee Reports and Workshop Proposals ------------------------------------------ o CHES SC The board received a report on CHES07 from Christof Paar. Paar also presented the proposal for CHES09. There was some discussion about the registration fee being high, since CHES is taking place on campus (instead of in a fancy hotel). The President called for a vote on the CHES09 proposal: 1 abstention, 1 against, all others in favor. o AC SC The board received a brief statement from Matsumoto. The AC SC recommended acceptance of Singapore for 2010. Mambo gave a presentation on AC09. Desmedt suggested to thank the AC09 organizers for taking IACR suggestions on finding a venue that will support more people. Ling San and Huaxiong Wang presented the proposal for AC10 in Singapore. In discussion, several board members preferred the "Raffles option." Several members suggest changing the site (a straw vote: 4 abstentions, 2 against, 7 in favor). The board voted unanimously to accept the Singapore proposal. o TCC SC Preneel presented for Damgaard. There was some discussion about whether or not the steering committees should be allowed to pick PC chairs unilaterally, or if they should *recommend* to the board for acceptance. o PKC SC Desmedt reported that the number of submissions only 71, the lowest number since it became an IACR event. He asked that the board vote on the proposal for PKC09. Since the current proposal offers several options, Preneel asked that the PKC SC have a final detailed proposal by CRYPTO08 for review by the President and the Treasurer. The board voted unanimously to accept the PKC09 proposal. o FSE SC Vaudenay gave a report on FSE08. He noted that the number of participants was quite high, and suggested that this was likely either because FSE had no free afternoon, or because it was collocated with another event (the ECRYPT SASC08 workshop). He recommended that future events consider following a similar format. Preneel presented the proposal for FSE09. Vice President Dawson called for a vote to accept the proposal. The board voted unanimously to accept. o Conference Chairs reports Lenstra highlighted the change suggested by PC chairs: - PC chairs should discuss dates for better coordination - an informal FAQ list to help authors increase their chance of acceptance - add names of best paper (and runners up) to the preface of the proceedings - longer time slot for the best paper - guidelines for session chairs - zero paper submission policy for PC members - a question: are parallel journal/conference submissions allowed? o Status of EC10 Preneel noted that their is currently no proposal for EC10. A proposal is in the works and at the membership meeting an open call for proposals will be announced with a deadline of 1 Aug 2008. o Maintaining the Service List and Database Hughes volunteered to maintain the new database. Discussions ---------- o Discussion about AC10 PC chair A candidate PC chair was selected, but the name is not yet public. [ Masayuki Abe was later announced.] o Discussion about distinguished lecturer for EC10 A candidate was selected, but the name is not yet public. [Moti Yung was announced as the distinguished lecturer at the membership meeting.] o Discussion about the donation Marconi Society Rivest suggested that this be used to the benefit of students. Preneel moved to offer a registration waiver to students of accepted papers who present the paper at one of the flagship IACR conferences. This policy would begin with CRYPTO08. Lenstra seconded, and the vote passed unanimously. o Discussion about the impact of LNCS moving from ISI to ISI Proceedings Some members suggested to create an electronic journal, but only if this gains us better standing with ISI. There was a proposal to approach Springer and ask for them to take corrective measure, for example by opening a new line of proceedings for the better conferences. Preneel shared a draft note on the matter for the IACR website. The board offered some small comments. Desmedt moved to approve, Lenstra seconded. It passed unanimously. o Discussion about the proposal to move CRYPTO to Toronto Board members argued on both sides of the issue. No decisions were reached, and Preneel will raise the issue at the general membership meeting. Meeting closed at 5:15pm