Membership Meeting Crypto 2002 Santa Barbara 21 August 2002 IACR President Clark convened the meeting at 17:15. Clark informed attendees that unless they'd taken action otherwise, they were members of the IACR for 2003. Raffle tickets were distributed to those in attendance for a drawing for a bottle of wine. Clark presented the meeting agenda which consisted of information about the IACR, its Board of Directors, its finances, its conferences and workshops, the Journal of Cryptology, the Newsletter, current issues, and a period of open discussion. Clark then quoted the purposes of the IACR from the Bylaws as "to advance the theory and practice of cryptology and related fields, and to promote the interests of its members with respect thereto, and to serve the public welfare." He then described the three annual IACR conferences of Eurocrypt, Crypto, and Asiacrypt and the two IACR-sponsored workshops: FSE and PKC. He then described IACR publications of the Journal of Cryptology and the IACR Newsletter and noted the web site at www.iacr.org. Clark then introduced the members of the Board of Directors. Clark next offered his thanks to Kevin McCurley for his six years as IACR President, his work with the IACR web site, his production of a CD of past IACR proceedings, and his many other contributions to the IACR and its members. Clark then presented McCurley with a plaque signed by all of the past presidents of the IACR gratefully acknowledging his many contributions. Clark then presented a brief financial report noting that IACR finances were stable with reserves of approximately $363,000 (approximately $350,000 at the end of 2001). He added that all three IACR conferences in 2001 had returned modest surpluses and that the 2002 conferences were on track. He also noted that attendance at Crypto had decreased by approximately 10% which was less of a drop than had been suffered by many other conferences in Computer Science and related fields. Clark then announced the decision by the Board to raise IACR annual dues from $80 for regular members and $40 for student members to $88 for regular members and $44 for student members. Clark then expressed thanks to Crypto 2002 General Chair Rebecca Wright and Program Chair Moti Yung and presented them plaques of appreciation. He also specifically thanked Wright for her extraordinary efforts in arranging for an IACR softball game and ensuring that the steps to the beach were rebuilt. Clark then enumerated upcoming IACR conferences and workshops as follows. Asiacrypt 2002 Queenstown, New Zealand December 1-5 PKC 2003 Miami, Florida January 6-8 FSE 2003 Lund, Sweden February 24-26 Eurocrypt 2003 Warsaw, Poland May 4-8 Crypto 2003 Santa Barbara August 17-21 Asiacrypt 2003 Taipei, Taiwan December 7-11* *[The Asiacrypt 2003 dates have been amended to November 30 - December 4.] Asiacrypt 2002 General Chair Henry Wolfe invited attendees to the conference noting that there had been 175 papers submitted. PKC 2002 General Chair Mike Burmester invited attendees to the workshop and solicited sponsors. It was also noted that as a newly IACR-sponsored workshop, PKC would afford attendees their first opportunity to pay their 2004 IACR membership dues. Clark then solicited proposals to host conferences and workshops in 2005. Clark next reported on the Journal of Cryptology noting that the Editor-in-Chief position was in the process of being passed from Feigenbaum to Maurer. He noted that the Journal of Cryptology is the premier journal in the field and that roughly 75% of the IACR membership dues are used to pay for subscriptions to the Journal. He then solicited high-quality submissions for the Journal. Clark then reported on the Newsletter noting that Cachin had been re-appointed as Editor. He said that a flat text version was distributed by email thrice annually and that a richer version was available on the IACR web site. He asked that items of interest be sent to "newsletter@iacr.org". Clark then asked for a straw poll as to whether members preferred that the entire Newsletter be sent by email of that a notification and pointer be sent instead. A large majority seemed to prefer the notification and pointer option. Clark then reported on the 2002 election noting that three board positions were being vacated. He introduced the Nomination and Election Committee consisting of Benaloh, Desmedt, and Rose and encouraged interested people to speak with a member of the Committee. Clark then described the IACR Fellows designation that had been put forward by Feigenbaum. He said that the proposal included an amendment to the IACR Bylaws that would be placed on the fall ballot. Clark next announced the appointment of Hilarie Orman to the role of IACR Archivist and said that past IACR publications were being catalogued in co-operation with Springer-Verlag. Clark then turned to the issue of electronic registration for IACR conferences. He said that the Board had appointed an Information Technology Strategy Committee and hoped to have electronic registration in place for Crypto 2003. Clark then described the LINK access to publications provided by Spinger-Verlag. He noted the URLs of link.springer-ny.com and link.springer.de and provided a suitable user name and password for access. He then gave a brief demonstration of the service and noted that the earliest available entries were all Cryptology-related. He said that the access password would be emailed to IACR members and agreed to explore with Springer-Verlag the possibility of including earlier volumes of the Journal of Cryptology. ________________________________________________________________________ At 17:43 Clark opened the floor for discussion from the membership. ________________________________________________________________________ Rich Schroeppel asked if a referendum mechanism could be added to the IACR Bylaws and was told that such a mechanism was already in place. A member suggested parallel sessions to enable the acceptance of more papers while shortening the length of the conference. McCurley asked for a show of hands regarding the possibility of parallel sessions, and a strong majority expressed a desire to not have parallel sessions. Niels Ferguson suggested shortening talks to enable acceptance of more papers. Clark responded that he likes the current length of talks. Gideon Yuval suggested that session chairs be more forceful about enforcing the schedule. Dan Bernstein asked that the Springer-Verlag LINK password stay constant, and Clark responded that this was managed by Springer-Verlag. Joe Kilian expressed discomfort with the proposed change to the Bylaws without an opportunity for open debate. He then asked if an on-line discussion mechanism could be made available. Clark responded that the IACR depends upon volunteers and sought suggestions, and Feigenbaum asked for a volunteer to act as a moderator for an on-line discussion. Mike Burmester expressed the view that the cost of the Journal of Cryptology was high and asked why all members had to pay for it. Clark responded that the Journal is the premier scientific publication in its field and expressed concern about raising costs for those who elect to subscribe. Langford noted that the cost was approximately $60 per year. Burmester said that he wanted Springer-Verlag to take commercial responsibility for the Journal, and Feigenbaum responded that it does. Both Clark and Jimmy Upton reported that subscribing directly to the Journal is far more expensive than being an IACR member. Victor Miller asked about the possibility of institutional memberships in the IACR. Clark responded that institutional memberships had been discontinued about 6-7 years ago because of the administrative burden. A member asked if it would be possible to avoid presentation of rejected papers at the rump session. Clark responded that this was up to the rump session chair. McCurley suggested discouraging conference announcements at the rump session, while another member suggested that rejected papers were more valuable at the rump session than accepted papers. A drawing was then held to raffle off a bottle of wine. ________________________________________________________________________ The Membership meeting was then adjourned at 18:00. ________________________________________________________________________ Respectfully submitted Josh Benaloh IACR Secretary