Minutes of the Membership Meeting at Crypto 2001

Membership Meeting
Crypto 2001
Santa Barbara
22 Aug 2001

IACR President McCurley began the meeting at 16:35.

McCurley began by expressing his desire for a brief meeting to allow
sufficient time to attend the beach barbeque.  He then gave a brief
history of the IACR, founded in 1983, and noted that Crypto attendees
were members of the IACR unless they had taken explicit action to not
become members.  McCurley described the  mission of the IACR as
advancing the theory and practice of cryptology and  related fields,
and he described its primary products as the Eurocrypt, Crypto, and
Asiacrypt conferences, the Journal of Cryptology, and the Newsletter.

McCurley then introduced the members of the IACR Board of Directors
and described the role of the Board as including the setting of
policies and guidelines for the organization and its activities and
selection of conference venues along with conference and program
chairs.  He then described some recent issues that have occupied the
Board's attention including IACR sponsorship of workshops, the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, and IACR copyright ownership.

McCurley then described the IACR Distinguished Lecturer as an honor
recognizing long-standing contributions by a member of the field and
announced that David Chaum would be giving the IACR Distinguished
Lecture at Crypto in August of 2002.

McCurley then described the FSE workshop which had recently gained the
status of an IACR sponsored workshop.  He said that this action had
been approved by the IACR Board and that the IACR would accept
responsibility starting in 2002.  He added that the FSE Steering
Committee would run the FSE workshop and that copyrights of papers
presented at the workshop would be given to the IACR.
____________________________________________________________________


Election Committee Chair Berson then reported on the forthcoming IACR
elections.

He noted that the terms of all four of the IACR Officers and three of
the IACR Directors would be expiring at the end of the year and that
elections would be held to fill all of these positions for three-year
terms.  He identified Biham, Diffie, and Landrock as the Directors
whose terms were expiring and also identified the Election Committee
consisting of himself, Yvo Desmedt, and Rebecca Wright.

Berson described how any IACR member can nominate any other member and
referred interested persons to http://www.iacr.org for nomination
materials which needed to be returned by September 16.  He then
described the process whereby ballots are sent to members with
instructions to place the ballot into an inner envelope which is in
turn placed into an outer envelop for mailing to the Returning
Officer.  Berson then identified Desmedt as the Returning Officer who
it was felt, by virtue of his status as a resident of the state of
Florida, was in a unique position to ensure fair counting of the
ballots.

McCurley then noted that several Board positions would be open
including the position of IACR President.
____________________________________________________________________


McCurley then noted that the IACR is a volunteer organization and
presented plaques in gratitude to Crypto 2001 General Chair David
Balenson and Crypto 2001 Program Chair Joe Kilian for their efforts in
making the conference a success.  Applause was given by the audience.
____________________________________________________________________


Program Chair Kilian then presented statistics on the conference
program.

He said that there had been 156 submissions of which 34 had been
accepted (although one was subsequently withdrawn).  This meant that
78% of the submissions were rejected.  The breakdown of submissions by
domain was given as follows.

.com  37
.edu  32
.fr   15
.jp   10
.kr    9
.tw    7
.au    6
.il    5
.de    5
.net   4
.ch    4
.uk    4
.in    3
.ca    3
.se    3
.org   2
.dk    2
.yu    1
.sg    1
.mx    1
.ie    1
.gov   1
.es    1
.be    1

Kilian gave the following breakdown of reasons for acceptances by the
Program Committee.

"10:  Snowed by complicated mathematics."
"20:  Masterful citation of PC members."
"4:  No spelling mistakes."

He then gave the following breakdown of reasons for rejections by the
Program Committee.

"15:  Didn't understand brilliance of paper."
"5:  Did understand, was jealous."
"102:  Never did get a chance to read 65-156."

Kilian then noted that 10 out of 37 ".com" submissions were accepted
for a rate of 27% while only 8 out of 32 ".edu" submissions were
accepted for a rate of 25%.

Next, Kilian observed that 40% of papers citing committee members Ran
Canetti and Stuart Haber were accepted while all papers mentioning any
of six other committee members were rejected.  Kilian added that
citation of other notable names had the following results on
acceptance rates.

Wigderson  24.5%
Rabin      14.6%
Micali     10.5%
Goldreich   9.5%
Goldwasser  8.9%
Shamir      2.4%

Kilian then noted that there was a +.16 correlation between size of
submitted ".ps" files and acceptance rates and that only 10% of papers
prepared using Microsoft Word were accepted.  Finally he noted
variations in acceptance rates for papers using each of the following
terms.

Rigorous    +35
Paradigm    +15.8
Practical    +0.29
Correct      +0.91
Fast         -2

Whit Diffie asked if stylistic recognition software was run, and
Kilian responded that it had revealed that most of the papers were
written by Sir Francis Bacon.
____________________________________________________________________


General Chair Balenson then reported on details for Crypto 2001 which
he dubbed as "the 1st Crypto in the true 21st Century".

He said that the unofficial totals included 497 registrants of which
105 (21%) were students, 85 (17%) had attended Eurocrypt, and 394
(79%) had registered early.

Balenson then gave a breakdown of the 32 countries from which
participants had registered as follows.

Argentina       3
Australia       7
Belgium         6
Brazil          2
Canada         23
China           3
Czech Repub.    4
Denmark         4
Finland         5
France         39
Germany        26
Hungary         1
Ireland         2
Israel         14
Italy           4
Japan          31
Korea          43
New Zealand     2
Norway          1
Romania         4
Russia          1
Saudi Arabia    1
Singapore       3
S. Africa       2
Spain           1
Sweden          3
Switzerland    14
Taiwan          4
The Nether.     7
Turkey          1
U.K.           16
U.S.A.        220

Balenson then noted how attendance compared to recent years with the
following recent attendance figures.

1997  506
1998  529
1999  509
2000  502
2001  497

Balenson then quoted the following figures for quantities of food
consumed.

210 lbs. of shrimp
250 doz. chocolate strawberries
249 doz. strawberries
200 rolls / 1600 pieces of sushi
198 six packs of beer
264 bottles of wine
??? bottles of tequila (TBD)

Finally, Balenson suggested the following possible explanations for a
"bug" that had been discovered on the conference T-Shirts.

"It was a test!  (Scott Fluhrer wins the prize)"
"It represents a noisy channel"
"The channel was under attack"
"It's a quantum bit"
"I copied it from the 1st edition of a well known book"

Balenson concluded by thanking the IACR Board and especially Susan
Langford; former General Chairs Matt Franklin and Don Beaver; his
employer NAI Labs, the security research division of PGP Security, a
Network Associates Business; Joe Kilian, the Program Chair, and the
Program Committee; and UCSB conference services (Sally Vito), catering
services (Eriko Macdonald), and Campbell Hall technicians (J.O. and
team).
____________________________________________________________________


Treasurer Langford then gave a report on the finances of the IACR.

She presented a bar graph displaying the disbursements of funds
collected from the 2000 Eurocrypt, Crypto, and Asiacrypt conferences.
The total funds collected were seen to be approximately $200,000 for
Eurocrypt, slightly more for Crypto, and approximately $100,000 for
Asiacrypt.  In all cases, the overwhelming majority of funds collected
were spent on the conferences themselves with smaller amounts being
spent on IACR dues, used to fund the IACR Secretariat, and returned to
the IACR as surplus.  Langford noted that the IACR did not seek to
make "profits" from conferences.

Langford then presented a graph displaying the cash reserves of the
IACR which were estimated at $350,000 as of December 31, 2000.  The
graph showed approximately $200,000 held in CDs, roughly half that
amount in a checking account, and a similar amount in a market rate
account.

Langford then presented a pie chart displaying how the IACR dues money
is spent.  These funds were shown to be spent 75% on the Journal of
Cryptology, 12% on IACR Secretariat services, and 13% on miscellaneous
expenses.

The floor was then opened for questions from the membership, and it
was asked whether it was possible that credit cards not be billed for
registration charges until the beginning of the conference.  Langford
noted that many conference expenses had to be paid in advance of the
start of the conference and that as of Asiacrypt 2001, credit cards
would be charged at time of receipt or shortly thereafter.  It was
asked if two separate charges could be made -- one at time of receipt
and another at the beginning of the conference, and Langford responded
that the IACR did not have the resources to do this.  It was suggested
that as many as 25% of IACR attempts to bill credit cards were
refused.

It was also asked whether the IACR was considering accepting the euro
at future conferences, and Langford responded that this was being
looked into.
____________________________________________________________________


Journal of Cryptology Editor-in-Chief Feigenbaum then reported on the
status of the Journal.

She began by noting the Journal's web page at
http://www.iacr.org/jofc/ and then announced that Don Beaver had
joined the Editorial Board.

Feigenbaum then described the journal's backlog -- those papers that
had been accepted but not yet appeared -- as being three issues.

Feigenbaum then announced that Ueli Maurer had been appointed as the
new Editor-in-Chief and that the two would jointly hold the position
until 2003 at which point Maurer would hold it alone.  Feigenbaum then
solicited papers and referees for the journal.  She also announced
that the SCI indexing service had informed her that the Journal of
Cryptology citation rate has been increasing and that they wanted to
feature this information.  Feigenbaum asked that any new submissions
to the Journal be sent to Maurer as of January 2002.

Feigenbaum then noted that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act may
affect the Journal as well as other aspects of the IACR and solicited
relevant information.

An audience member asked if there was a problem with distribution of
Volume 14 Issue Number 3, and Feigenbaum responded that she knew of no
problem and suggested contacting the Membership Secretary to verify
addressing.

McCurley then thanked Feigenbaum for her efforts and general applause
was given.
____________________________________________________________________


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

He described the Newsletter as being distributed electronically thrice
annually and as also being available at http://www.iacr.org.  He
indicated that it included book reviews, conference announcements, and
job advertisements.  He then announced the deadline for the next
Newsletter as September 30, 2001 and asked that items be submitted to
newsletter@iacr.org.

An audience member asked if the Newsletter was available off-line, and
Cachin asked that such requests be sent to him directly.

Cachin then reported on the ePrint Archive at http://eprint.iacr.org/
which he maintains along with Mihir Bellare and Bennet Yee.  He said
that refereeing is minimal and items are approved by the editor.  He
added that submissions, updates, annotations, and deletions can all be
accomplished through an automated interface.
____________________________________________________________________


McCurley then reported on upcoming IACR conferences and sponsored
workshops.

Asiacrypt 2001 was scheduled for 9-13 December 2001 on the Gold Coast
of Australia.  Ed Dawson was the General Chair and Colin Boyd was the
Program Chair.

Dawson provided details on the conference.  He described the Gold
Coast as just south of Brisbane with many attractions and local
airports.  He gave the venue as Somerset College which he described as
providing athletic facilities and being approximately fifteen minutes
from the Gold Coast.  Dawson then described the accommodations on the
Gold Coast and the planned Tuesday afternoon tour of a local rain
forest.  He added that the hotels were a five-minute walk from the
beach.

Dawson listed the price of the Concorde Hotel at AUS$114 (or
approximately US$60) and the price of the Grand Mercure Hotel at
AUS$130.  He said that registration forms should be sent within four
weeks and reminded attendees that December is the summer in Australia
with expected temperatures of 28-34 degrees Centigrade and that hats
should be worn.
____________________________________________________________________


McCurley then continued his report on upcoming IACR conferences and
sponsored workshops.

Eurocrypt 2002 is scheduled for April 28 - May 2, 2002 in Amsterdam,
The Netherlands.  Berry Schoenmakers is the General Chair and Lars
Knudsen is the Program Chair.

Crypto 2002 is scheduled for 18-22 August 2002 in Santa Barbara,
California.  Rebecca Wright is the General Chair and Moti Yung is the
Program Chair.

Asiacrypt 2002 is scheduled for 1-5 December 2002 in Queenstown, New
Zealand.  Henry B. Wolfe is the General Chair and Yulian Zheng is the
Program Chair.

The next FSE Workshop was scheduled for 4-6 February 2002 in Leuven,
Belgium.  Matt Landrock was the General Chair and Joan Daemen and
Vincent Rijmen were Program Co-chairs.

Eurocrypt 2003 will be in Warsaw, Poland with dates in early May to be
confirmed.  Jerzy Gawinecki is the General Chair and Eli Biham is the
Program Chair.

Crypto 2003 will be in Santa Barbara, California with dates in August
to be confirmed.  Greg Rose is the General Chair and Dan Boneh is the
Program Chair.
____________________________________________________________________


McCurley then reported on IACR Membership Services.

He noted that Don Beaver is the Membership Secretary and that services
are provided by the University of California.  He suggested contacting
membership services via email at iacrmem@iacr.org to update personal
data such as addresses, URLs, and email addresses.  He then described
the Secretariat's role in managing registration for IACR conferences
and mailing of the Journal of Cryptology.
____________________________________________________________________


McCurley then took a straw poll of the audience on the amount of
introductory material in technical presentations.  Approximately eight
audience members responded that the amount was too much, a very large
portion of members responded that the amount was about right, and
approximately ten members responded that the amount was too little.
____________________________________________________________________


McCurley then opened the floor for other business at 17:32.

Whit Diffie announced his opinion that there was too much deadwood on
the Board of Directors and that he would therefore not seek
re-election.  Applause was given in thanks to his service to the IACR.

Rich Schroeppel inquired about electronic access to IACR materials.
Don Beaver responded that the Springer-Verlag "LINK" service was
slowly adding the Journal of Cryptology and IACR proceedings and noted
that one must accept cookies to access this service.  Schroeppel
suggested that the IACR should hold the copyrights, and McCurley
responded that it already does.  Schroeppel asked about seeking a
service to host electronic forms of IACR materials, and McCurley
responded that the IACR has been working with Springer-Verlag on
electronic publishing and that the situation is being monitored.

Joan Feigenbaum offered her thanks to Kevin McCurley for his service
to the IACR, and applause was given by the audience.

Stuart Haber then asked the audience for guidance on the rump session.
Many expressed a desire for the enforcement of time limits while a
smaller number of members supported a limit on the number of slides.
Paul Kocher suggested that one-page "negative" rump talks be included
in the conference proceedings, and McCurley responded that the
structure is up to the discretion of the Program Chair and reminded
members that the ePrint Archive could be used.  Haber then invited
rump speakers to send links to their work for publication on a web
site.

Joan Feigenbaum then asked if the Journal of Cryptology should include
short notes and suggested that those who were interested should
contact Ueli Maurer.  David Balenson asked if short notes would also
take nine months to be published, and Feigenbaum responded that it
probably would not.

John Kelly suggested rump session speaker guidelines, and McCurley
expressed his agreement.

Whit Diffie claimed success with his "synchronous" rump session
approach.

A member then suggested that more questions during and after technical
talks would be nice.  Tom Berson responded that this was affected by
both the size of the room and other factors and suggested that Session
Chairs should pause longer for questions and have their own questions
prepared in advance.

A member offered a demonstration of how the DMCA can be used to make
proceedings difficult to copy by displaying an inverted copy which he
described as a copy protection mechanism.  He then offered to perform
an unlocking service for members.

McCurley asked about quality control for the proceedings, and Andy
Clark noted that six copies of the proceedings had been returned.

Brian Snow then offered his thanks to Stuart Haber for his efforts who
then received general applause.

Whit Diffie then offered his opinion that the field has become so
diverse that it is difficult to learn and suggested that the
availability of more background material would be helpful.  Niels
Ferguson added his view that many presentations are targeted to a
narrow audience.  Yvo Desmedt suggested that "clickable" references be
included.

Jon Graff suggested that proceedings be sent to attendees a week
before conferences or, in the alternative, that abstracts be posted in
advance.  McCurley responded that Springer-Verlag had the abstracts
posted the previous week.

Greg Rose suggested that talks sometimes followed a pattern of being
two-thirds introduction and the other third being too shallow and
asked that speakers tell the audience their results.
____________________________________________________________________


The Membership Meeting was then adjourned at 17:52.
____________________________________________________________________




Respectfully submitted
Josh Benaloh
IACR Secretary



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