Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting at Crypto 2001

************************   EXECUTIVE SUMMARY  ************************


The IACR Board of Directors met on August 19, 2001 during Crypto 2001
in Santa Barbara.  Reports were received on the final disposition of
Asiacrypt 2000 and Eurocrypt 2001 and the status of Crypto 2001,
Asiacrypt 2001, Eurocrypt 2002,  Crypto 2002, Asiacrypt 2002, and
Eurocrypt 2003.  Additional reports were  received on the status of
the Journal of Cryptology, the IACR Newsletter, web site, and ePrint
Archive, IACR membership and Secretariat issues, IACR finances,  and
the Asiacrypt Steering Committee.

The Board accepted a final proposal to hold Eurocrypt 2003 in Warsaw,
Poland with Jerzy Gawinecki as the General Chair and Eli Biham as
Program Chair.

The Board appointed Ueli Maurer to a three-year term as
Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cryptology commencing on January 1,
2002.

The Board invited David Chaum to deliver the 2002 IACR Distinguished
Lecture.

The Board voted to appoint Greg Rose as General Chair of Crypto 2003
and Dan Boneh as Program Chair.

The Board added McCurley and Wright to the committee to study issues
regarding the IACR Secretariat.  The committee is chaired by Clark,
and has Beaver, Desmedt, and Langford as prior members.  The purview
of the committee was extended to include studying the IT needs of the
IACR.

The Board appointed a committee to consider what, if any, response
should be taken by the IACR to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The committee consisted of Beaver, Clark, Desmedt, Feigenbaum,
McCurley, and Wright.

The Board decided to change the name of future Business Meetings to
"Membership" Meetings and to take other actions to attempt to make
these meetings more attractive to IACR membership.


************************   DETAILED MINUTES   ************************


Board of Directors Meeting
Crypto 2001
Santa Barbara
19 August 2001


Board President McCurley called the meeting to order at 10:03.

Present were Balenson, Beaver, Benaloh, Berson, Cachin, Clark, Dawson,
Feigenbaum, Kim, Landrock, Langford, Maurer, McCurley, Preneel, Wolfe,
and Wright as well as Micky Swick who represented the IACR
Secretariat.

Proxies were held for Knudsen and Posch by Preneel and for Biham by
McCurley.
______________________________________________________________________


McCurley asked the members of the Board to introduce themselves for
the benefit of new members.

The agenda for the meeting was then briefly discussed and approved.

**********************************************************************
**
Minutes of the 6 May 2001 meeting were approved with a spelling
correction.  Motion by Preneel seconded by Landrock carried 16 to 0.
**********************************************************************
**
______________________________________________________________________


Crypto 2001 General Chair Balenson began by reporting on the status of
the conference.

He said that all was well, that proceedings and t-shirts had arrived
in good order, and that little had changed from previous years.

Balenson said that registration costs had increased $25 over the
previous year (an increase of less than 5%) and had been figured based
on a break-even point of 350 attendees.  He said that there were 486
pre-registrants and a total of over  500 registrants expected.  He
also said that 11 student author stipends had been granted totaling
approximately $10,000 and that 13 student non-author stipends had been
granted totaling approximately $6,000.  Balenson said that he expected
the conference to return a surplus.

Balenson then raised the issue of press credentials.  He reminded the
Board that he previously circulated e-mail describing Declan
McCullagh's request to be  issued complementary press credentials to
Crypto.  He said that McCullagh never pressed the issue and no
resolution had been reached.

Balenson also said that three Chinese delegates had been unable to get
visas to attend.  McCurley noted that it is IACR policy that its
conferences be open to all members regardless of nationality.
Feigenbaum noted that letters to the U.S. government were sometimes
helpful in such cases, and McCurley added that this should be routine
and that we can write to the U.S. State Department.

The discussion then returned to the issue of press credentials.
Benaloh asserted that there should be a consistent policy in this
regard, and McCurley agreed that consistency is important.  Feigenbaum
added that the IACR has no need to curry favor with the press.  Maurer
asked why members of the press could not just show up and speak with
delegates.  Clark noted that the IACR rarely issues press statements
or courts the press and said that he saw no reason to extend free
press credentials.  Feigenbaum agreed with this point, and Balenson
said that this was consistent with his actions.  Wright asked if a
member of a student press might be granted a stipend, and Balenson
said that he could consider it.  Preneel noted that Eurocrypt
organizers might invite the local press, and McCurley suggested a
system of limited access.  Maurer suggested that this issue be left to
the discretion of General Chairs, and McCurley said that this seemed
to be the consensus.

Balenson then noted that the Secretariat's procedure of batching work
caused some delays in registration confirmation and charges that, in
turn, caused grief to some registrants.

Desmedt arrived at this point.

Wright said that she was hoping to enable electronic registration for
Crypto 2002.  Landrock said that he had been personally concerned
about his own registration.  Beaver suggested that this problem would
be resolved as electronic registration becomes available.  McCurley
asked that the latency be bounded, and Dawson asked how long it had
been.  Balenson responded that no confirmations were sent before late
June, and that latency thereafter was sometimes more than a week.

Balenson then thanked the Board and offered specific thanks to
previous General Chairs Beaver and Matt Franklin, to Treasurer
Langford, and to Sally Vito and the UCSB staff.
______________________________________________________________________


Membership Secretary Beaver then reported on related issues.

He began by noting that some recent technical glitches left him unable
to report a total count of current membership.

Beaver then said that he was looking to enable on-line registration
for both consistency and convenience.

He also reported that the lack of representatives from the Secretariat
at "remote" conferences had caused some difficulties and that he was
consulting with Micky Swick regarding the possibility of hiring a
professional consultant.

Swick added that the UCSB was unable to provide people to be on-site
away from Santa Barbara and that she felt that an on-site presence was
an important function of the Secretariat.

McCurley asked Swick if she had suggestions and Swick suggested the
hiring of a professional meeting organizer.  Benaloh asked whether
this would be instead of or in addition to the UCSB, and Swick
responded that it might be as a replacement to the UCSB but that this
was flexible.

McCurley said that the IACR was very happy with the services provided
by the UCSB, but Swick responded that she felt that the services that
the UCSB could provide no longer met the needs of the IACR.

Clark offered to convene a committee meeting to discuss these issues.

McCurley noted that on-line registration posed a concern to some
members since members could access their data when registering.
Beaver responded that the IACR database was always encrypted prior to
e-mailing and suggested that people be allowed to eliminate their
names from the database.

Swick left the meeting at this point.  Cachin also left and gave his
proxy to Landrock.
______________________________________________________________________


McCurley then moved to the issue of selecting an IACR Distinguished
Lecturer for Crypto 2002.

Berson noted receiving e-mail from Diffie apologizing for his absence.

**********************************************************************
**

The Board then voted to ask David Chaum to give the 2002 IACR
Distinguished Lecture.  [Chaum subsequently accepted.]

**********************************************************************
**
______________________________________________________________________


Journal Editor Feigenbaum then reported on the state of the Journal.

She reported that the Journal was in good shape.  She said that
authors, referees, and editors were sometimes slow.  She indicated her
view that the ideal backlog was approximately 3 issues and that there
were approximately 2.5 issues currently backlogged with several
additional good papers in the pipeline.

Feigenbaum said that progress had been made on electronic publishing
and that Springer-Verlag had agreed to give all IACR members on-line
access to their "LINK" service (although it currently contained only
volumes 9 through 14 of the Journal).

Feigenbaum then said that 2002 would be the last of her 6 years as
Journal Editor and that she would like to serve as Co-Editor with a
new Editor during 2002 (much as she did with the previous Journal
Editor, Gilles Brassard).

Finally, she said that the Scientific Citation Index had noted an
increase in citation of cryptography papers and had asked include this
as a feature.

Beaver observed that some papers in the pipeline for publication are
available in electronic form prior to publication.  McCurley responded
that the concern about electronic publishing was archival and asked if
we should archive electronic copies of the Journal for our own use.
McCurley also asked what else should be archived.

The Editor Search Committee then reported on its findings.

**********************************************************************
**

The Board then voted to ask Ueli Maurer to serve a three-year term as
Editor of the Journal of Cryptology from 2002 through 2004.  [Maurer
subsequently  accepted.]

**********************************************************************
**

Maurer then said that his goal was to make the Journal of Cryptology
the best journal in the field and to seek the best papers in the field
for publication in the Journal.
______________________________________________________________________


McCurley then reported on the status of 2001 IACR elections.

He noted that this was an important election as 7 positions were open.

Balenson then withdrew from the Election Committee in order to allow
himself to stand for election.  Berson agreed to join the committee in
his place.  McCurley then withdrew from the Election Committee in
order to allow himself to stand for election.  Wright agreed to join
the committee in his place.

Benaloh then noted that there might be some inconsistencies in the
by-laws regarding length of terms and filling of uncompleted terms,
and it was agreed that the by-laws should be studied.
______________________________________________________________________


The Board then recessed for lunch at 11:43.

The Board reconvened at 12:07.
______________________________________________________________________


McCurley noted the existence of an IEEE conference on Foundations of
Software Engineering which carries the same initials (FSE) as the
workshop newly sponsored by the IACR.
______________________________________________________________________


McCurley then reported on planning for Eurocrypt 2003.  He recalled
that there had been concerns about the budget and venue at the
proposed site in Warsaw, Poland.  He said that the proposal had been
revised and that a new and less expensive venue had been found in
Warsaw with more space and many nearby hotels.

**********************************************************************
**

The Board then voted to accept the Warsaw proposal for Eurocrypt 2003.
Motion by Clark, seconded by Cachin, was approved 19-0.

**********************************************************************
**
______________________________________________________________________


McCurley then moved to planning for Crypto 2003 which would be
presumed to be held at the usual Santa Barbara venue.

**********************************************************************
**

The Board then voted to ask Greg Rose to serve as General Chair of
Crypto 2003.  [Rose subsequently accepted.]

**********************************************************************
**

**********************************************************************
**

The Board then voted to ask Dan Boneh to serve as Program Chair of
Crypto 2003.  [Boneh subsequently accepted.]

**********************************************************************
**
______________________________________________________________________


Asiacrypt Steering Committee Chair Dawson then reported on the
activities of the Committee.

Dawson asked to clarify his understanding that the Asiacrypt Steering
Committee should propose a list of potential Program Chairs for each
Asiacrypt.  McCurley responded that he would like the Asiacrypt
Steering Committee to propose possible Program Chairs for ALL IACR
conferences.

Dawson asked whether the Asiacrypt Program Chair should be Asian and
expressed the view that the Asiacrypt Steering Committee should not
propose a Program Chair.

Feigenbaum suggested that the Board accept any Program Chair proposed
by the Asiacrypt Steering Committee unless it felt that the choice was
unreasonable.

Dawson proposed that the Asiacrypt Steering Committee suggest three
names (without any ranking) for the position of Program Chair.
______________________________________________________________________


McCurley then raised the issue of copyright of IACR Proceedings.

He noted that in negotiations with Springer-Verlag, copyright will
continue to be kept by the IACR.  He then asked for the authority to
negotiate a proceedings contract similar to the contract for the
Journal of Cryptology.

Cachin asked that the (inaccurate) "Copyright Springer-Verlag" notice
be removed in Proceedings.

McCurley then said that he would ask for "LINK" access and asked the
Board how  this should relate to any possible CD-ROMs of IACR
conference proceedings.  Desmedt asked about the cost of such a
CD-ROM, and Preneel expressed the view that cumulative CD-ROMs would
be more valuable than CD-ROMs for individual conferences.
______________________________________________________________________


Desmedt and Kim then requested that the PKC conference receive IACR
sponsorship.

They said that the Public-Key Cryptography conference had been in
existence since 1998 and that a fixed Steering Committee screens the
submitted papers.  Desmedt noted that the first four PKC conferences
had been held in Asia but that there were many non-Asian authors.
Desmedt also requested that IACR membership for PKC attendees be
optional.

McCurley then noted that the IACR Board could refuse to accept
individual conference proposals and asked if PKC would utilize IACR
membership services.  He also asked about the process for Steering
Committee membership.  Desmedt responded that all PKC Steering
Committee members were asked to serve by Professor Imai and noted that
the IACR Board was originally unelected.

McCurley then described his plans to negotiate to give Springer-Verlag
exclusive short-term publication rights and non-exclusive long-term
publication rights.  Desmedt responded that this arrangement would be
fine for PKC.

Wright expressed discomfort with the proposal that PKC participants
"may become IACR members".  Desmedt responded that the conference is
not yet stable, and Feigenbaum replied that stability is important
prior to IACR sponsorship.  Desmedt indicated that PKC was
scientifically stable, and Beaver suggested that IACR members should
not subsidize risk for non-members.  Desmedt asked when conference
attended should become IACR members, and Berson responded that this
should take place upon sponsorship.

McCurley suggested that amendments to the proposal were necessary, and
Berson expressed the view that the sponsorship agreement should match
the FSE agreement.  Desmedt agreed to revise the proposal.

Benaloh asked if there was any rush to sponsor PKC prior to 2004?
Desmedt responded that he wanted PKC to be sponsored in 2003 with the
IACR taking financial responsibility as of 2004.

McCurley suggested waiting until the next IACR Board meeting.  Desmedt
said that he wanted to rush.

Benaloh asked if PKC was sufficiently mature for IACR sponsorship, and
both McCurley and Cachin expressed their views that it was ready.
______________________________________________________________________


Desmedt then raised the issue of paper acceptance policies for Crypto
and Eurocrypt.  He said that he had received complaints about
conflicts of interest regarding papers submitted by students of
Program Committee members and suggested  that the Program Chair
Guidelines include a new section on conflicts of interest.

Maurer agreed to add such a section.
______________________________________________________________________


Cachin then announced that he had added a listing of sponsored
workshops on the IACR web site.
______________________________________________________________________


Maurer then returned to the topic of Program Chair Guidelines.  He
said that the Guidelines had just undergone a substantial revision but
that they could not  cover everything.

Feigenbaum suggested that the Guidelines not attempt to define
conflicts of interest.

McCurley then thanked Maurer for his work on the Guidelines.
______________________________________________________________________


Preneel then described the electronic submission software and the
separate review software that had been written for Eurocrypt 2000 and
expressed his willingness  to have the IACR use it.

McCurley asked about licensing, and Preneel asked if this could be
kept informal.

McCurley then noted that the IACR did not own a computer to host
applications and asked if this would be useful to manage such items as
conference organization, paper submissions, reviews, the IACR
Newsletter, the IACR web site, the ePrint archive, and membership
data.  Preneel responded that he thought that a dedicated IACR machine
might be useful but wasn't urgent.
______________________________________________________________________


McCurley then opened a discussion of the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DMCA).

He described the act, passed in 1998, the recent arrest case of Dmitry
Sklyarov, and suggestions from some IACR members that the Crypto
conference be moved out of the United States.  He then told of having
written a letter as IACR president protesting the situation.  McCurley
added that he had been asked if the IACR would support authors who
submit papers on cryptanalysis.

Berson said that the DMCA prohibits publication of methods to
circumvent copy protection and indicated that moving the conference
out of the U.S. would not help.

Feigenbaum said that it was not clear if publication constitutes
"distribution of tools for circumvention of copy protection".

Wright indicated that this was a current issue that should be
addressed.

Clark expressed the view that the DMCA will "shake out" and noted that
the IACR sponsors many non-U.S. conferences.  He said that we should
be prudent and establish a policy.

McCurley noted that the IACR is incorporated in the U.S. and is
therefore liable regardless of the conference venue.

Feigenbaum asked who we are trying to protect ... authors, publishers,
IACR members, directors, etc.  She then said that the issues should be
clarified.

Desmedt suggested that the Guidelines for Program Chairs warn of these
issues.

McCurley indicated that the same should be true for the ePrint
archive.

Maurer noted that this was a national issue and asked if the IACR
should comment.  He added a view that the IACR must be willing to take
risks.

Berson said that this has a chilling effect on research.

Preneel suggested informing members of our actions.

Beaver indicated that the IACR's non-profit status may prohibit its
taking political positions.  He noted the similarities with key escrow
and encryption restrictions.

Feigenbaum suggested that the IACR not lobby but state its position.

Beaver expressed a concern that warnings could be counterproductive.

Desmedt indicated that escrow was distinct from research.

Berson said that the IACR shouldn't lobby but that the DMCA does have
a chilling effect.  He said that some IACR members will recruit the
IACR for their lobbying efforts and that we need to maintain control
of the situation.

Wright said that as researchers we work on both sides of cryptology --
both creating and attacking these technologies.

Feigenbaum suggested creating a committee to study this.  McCurley
appointed a committee consisting of himself, Beaver, Clark, Desmedt,
Feigenbaum, and Wright.

Beaver said that our position will be that the IACR will stand its
ground.

Benaloh asked if this position should be expressed in public, and
Beaver suggested that it should not.

Cachin suggested that a statement could be placed in the Newsletter.

McCurley said that he would announce at the Business Meeting that the
Board is studying the issue.
______________________________________________________________________


Treasurer Langford then gave a report on IACR finances.

She said that the finances of the IACR were good and that all recent
conferences had returned surpluses.  She recommended that IACR dues
remain at $80, and that the IACR contract with Springer-Verlag had
expired and needed to be renewed.

Desmedt asked about the IACR's acceptance of euros, but no resolution
was reached.
______________________________________________________________________


The Board then recessed at 14:23.

The Board reconvened at 14:32.
______________________________________________________________________


McCurley then reported on details of Asiacrypt 2000.

He said that he had been sent information from Asiacrypt 2000 General
Chair Matsumoto that there had been 251 participants, with 40
students, and that there had been significant participation from the
United States and Europe.  He added  that the conference returned no
surplus despite small contributions from Initiatives in Research for
Information Security and the Telecommunications Advancement
Foundation.
______________________________________________________________________


Newsletter Editor Cachin then reported on the status of the
Newsletter.

He said that the most recent issue had been sent to 869 members and
that it did not reach 36.

McCurley asked if Cachin was happy with the web hosting services of
Southwest Cyber Port, and Cachin responded that they seemed all right.

McCurley asked what screening was done on ePrint submissions, and
Cachin responded that submissions were only screened for scope.

McCurley then thanked Cachin for his work on the IACR web site.
______________________________________________________________________


McCurley then delivered a report on Eurocrypt 2001 that was sent by
Eurocrypt 2001 General Chair Posch.

McCurley said that Posch had done a wonderful job to which there was
general agreement.
______________________________________________________________________


Asiacrypt 2001 General Chair Dawson then reported on the status of the
conference.

He said that 33 of 153 submitted papers were accepted and that Arjen
Lenstra and Brendon McKai were scheduled to give invited talks.  He
added that the break-even point for the conference would be in the
range of 160 to 180 attendees.

Clark suggested that the break-even point should be set high and that
it was OK to risk some possible losses.  Dawson responded that costs
were low and that Springer-Verlag was subsidizing the cost of the
proceedings.  Balenson added that we would receive 50 copies of the
proceedings from Springer-Verlag plus an additional 20 copies in
exchange for giving a Springer-Verlag representative a name badge and
the right to attend social events.

Dawson said that the rump session was scheduled for Monday evening to
leave Tuesday afternoon and evening entirely free.
______________________________________________________________________


Crypto 2002 General Chair Wright then reported on the status of the
conference.

She said that things would be kept similar to how they had been in the
past and that she would work to enable on-line payments.

McCurley suggested that Southwest Cyber Port might be able to accept
payments and then inquired about the dates that were given as 18-22
August 2002.

McCurley said that future conference dates needed to be submitted to
the UCSB, and Balenson volunteered to write notes for Wright on his
experiences as Crypto  2001 General Chair.
______________________________________________________________________


Asiacrypt 2002 General Chair Wolfe then reported on the status of the
conference.

He said that things were on track and that a contract had been signed
to produce a gift for attendees.
______________________________________________________________________


At this point Balenson noted that measures had been taken in the event
of any possible power outages during Crypto 2001.
______________________________________________________________________


At this point, Desmedt raised the issue of writing style in conference
papers.

Desmedt expressed the view that presentations had become mostly
background material and suggested distributing a questionnaire.

Wright suggested that a question during the Business Meeting could be
asked of the membership in lieu of a questionnaire, and Desmedt
agreed.

McCurley agreed to ask about this during the Business Meeting.
______________________________________________________________________


McCurley noted that he had many copies of old IACR conference
proceedings and that he wanted to distribute them.  He said that he
would offer them to Springer-Verlag and that if they were not accepted
he would sell them "cheap" to members.
______________________________________________________________________


McCurley then raised the issue of archiving which he said needed
attention.

Feigenbaum expressed the view that the IACR should have electronic
copies and paper copies of old Journals and Proceedings.

Berson suggested that wide distribution served as effective archiving.

Feigenbaum said that she had sent all electronic copies of Journal
papers to Springer-Verlag.

Desmedt suggested the need for a clear list of what should and should
not be archived, and McCurley offered to assemble such a list.

Wright expressed the view that maintaining current formats was
important.

Clark suggested that volunteers be sought to do electronic archiving
and that there was a need to maintain all legal documents such as
copyright assignment  forms.

McCurley suggested that the Program Chair Guidelines should include
instructions for archiving papers.
______________________________________________________________________


At this point the Board discussed ideas for making the Business
Meeting more attractive to the membership.

Cachin suggested that the IACR Distinguished Lecturer be announced at
the Business Meeting.

McCurley asked Balenson to announce that forthcoming announcements
would be made at the Business Meeting, and Balenson agreed to do so.

Clark suggested that the name of the Business Meeting be changed to
make it more appealing, and the term "Membership Meeting" was
suggested.
______________________________________________________________________


Feigenbaum then raised the topic of establishing an honorary
designation of "IACR Fellow".  She defined a "fellow" as someone who
has done both a lot of research in the area and a lot of service.

Desmedt expressed the view that this community was not sufficiently
coherent.

Feigenbaum expressed her willingness to work to create a process.

Berson noted that past discussions of this topic had been very
polarized.  He said that he supported it but that the general argument
against it was of a  democratic, egalitarian, non-elitist view.

McCurley offered that some may simply not want to spend the time and
effort.

Desmedt suggested the alternative of "senior" memberships.

Cachin expressed the view that the IACR is not large enough to support
this.

Feigenbaum said that she might submit a proposal to this effect.
______________________________________________________________________


Beaver then said that he believed that the IACR was developing a need
for some IT support.

Clark noted the existence of a committee to study membership,
electronic registration, and related issues.

McCurley and Wright then agreed to be added to a committee chaired by
Clark to study the role of the Secretariat, and the purview of this
committee was expanded to include IT issues.
______________________________________________________________________


At this point, Clark noted that this was McCurley's last Board Meeting
as IACR President and gave his thanks to McCurley for his
extraordinary service to the IACR.  General agreement and thanks were
given by the Board.
______________________________________________________________________


Items for the Business Meeting agenda were listed as the Journal
report, a financial report, a report from the Membership Secretary, an
election report, announcements of future conferences, a report on the
Board discussions regarding the DMCA, and a straw poll regarding the
content of conference talks.

Balenson agreed to announce the Business Meeting as a "Membership
Meeting".

Additional topics for the Business Meeting were to include the
possibility of announcing the next IACR Distinguished Lecturer and
upcoming conference chairs, an announcement of the IACR's sponsorship
of the FSE workshop, an announcement of the venue for Eurocrypt 2003,
and a report on the Newsletter and ePrint archive.
______________________________________________________________________


The meeting adjourned at 15:43.
______________________________________________________________________




Respectfully submitted
Josh Benaloh
IACR Secretary


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