IACR Vote 2016

Referendum on parallel sessions

The Board had suggested for many years that Program Chairs find a way to accommodate the increased number of submitted papers, including organizing parallel sessions. In 2014 the Board directly asked the Program Chairs of the 2015 general conferences (Eurocrypt, Crypto, Asiacrypt) to introduce parallel tracks in the program, for a significant portion of the sessions. The echo gathered at the conferences was generally positive, though some members expressed their disconsent.

The advantage of a program with parallel sessions lies in its ability to accommodate more papers, to have longer presentations, and to leave room for other activities (social program, tutorials, meeting time ...).

The proponents of a single-track program miss the ability to attend all talks, as there are invariably conflicts between the schedule and the topics of interest for some attendees.

The Board now asks all members to express their own opinion on this question.

In the three IACR General Conferences (Eurocrypt, Crypto, Asiacrypt) of 2015 a significant portion of the talks were held in parallel sessions.

• I wish to continue with parallel sessions
• I wish to return to all sessions being single-track

If approved the Guidelines for Program Chairs will be amended accordingly.

Change to the Bylaws

The Board proposes to change the bylaws in minor ways, the main change is to formally rename IACR Workshops to IACR Area Conferences .

The Bylaws currently distinguish between IACR conferences (Eurocrypt, Crypto, Asiacrypt) and IACR workshops (CHES, FSE, PKC, TCC). Since the latter have by far surpassed the common notion of a workshop in scope and attendance, we propose to rename them to IACR Area Conferences .

Explanations and further changes:

• The Bylaws document has so far defined IACR General Conferences (currently: Eurocrypt, Crypto, Asiacrypt) and IACR Area Conferences (currently: CHES, FSE, PKC, TCC). In the bylaws a term is needed to stand for both, this is Conference . Outside the bylaws we should continue to use Conference for Eurocrypt, Crypto, and Asiacrypt. Likewise, CHES, FSE, PKC, or TCC should (continue to) call themselves Conferences .
• The dates of the election and for the membership application are shifted by some weeks (the electronic procedures allow to do this).
• The concept of Steering Committees is introduced, as it influences the rules about chair selection; their role is mentioned for appointment of General Chairs and Program Chairs (but the rest is left to the respective Guidelines). This adapts the text to the current practice and to the Guidelines for Steering Committees.
• Textual clarifications.

All details:

• Proposed Bylaws (2016)
• Differences to the current Bylaws
• Current Bylaws (18 November 2013)

Voting Committee

• Christian Cachin (Chair)
• Nigel Smart
• Josh Benaloh