Dear Everybody,

This is the ISSUE alter the EVENT before! 520 of you gathered in Jerusalem last October and had the chance to mix business with pleasure! The business part is all in the 5 kilograms of the Proceedings, and so that you do not think that IAPR sells knowledge ty the gram, I should note that the acceptance rate ofthe papers was 1 in 2 (1 in 4 for oral presentations and 1 in 4 for posters). Thus, the knowledge is definitely measured in Kilos rather than in grams! There were submissions from 41 countries but apparently people from Belarus could not get visas to go and people from India had problems with flight cancellations due to an epidemic. There were four parallel tracks and a fifth one with posters. The areas covered were Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition, Signal Processing and Parallel Computing. You can find it all in the Conference Proceedings (ISBN 0-8186-6260-3) so I will tell you about the pleasure bit! In fact, I do not even need to tell you about that, because you can see for yourself on the next page: even belly dancers were summoned for the participants to practice in shape recognition! As for the camels, they were brought for the curve fitting practice (definitely very wobbly, if you know what I mean!). The banquet was a Bedouin feast in the desert, followed by a Sound and Light performance at Masada castle (the ruined palace of Herod) - a very moving and memorable experience.

Being the newsletter editor, I had the chance for the first time to sit at the Governing Board meeting as an observer. So, I will tell you some "behind the scenes" news. There are 46 Governing Board members representing the 32 member states. 37 of them were present or represented by proxy at the meeting. Each member of the executive committee (J K Aggarwal, President, S Tsuji, First Vice-president, J Kittlcr, Second Vice-president, G Borgefors, Secretary, S L Tanimoto, Treasurer) and some heads of Technical Committees gave reports. It was good news all around, except from the Treasurer! (I don't think it is a coincidence that people ask for "the bad news" when they ask for the bill!) The main income of our association is from the ICPRs, and the other important source is the dues paid by the member societies. The main expenditure is the Newsletter (that is us(!!!)-my heart sunk at this point!). Other expenses are the Secretariat, loans to the TCs, and running expenses in general. The full sum allocated for loans to the TCs was not used, which was fortunate, as the IAPR could not have afforded it! New expenditures are the Fellowships and the Industrial Award. The projected biennial result for the next two years is a decrease in funds of about US $12,000, from a balance of US $72,000. The King Sun Fu award money is something separate invested mostly in mutual funds, which have decreased in value to $26,000. The award sum was not increased this year, and in the future it may become necessary to decrease it! (If you are to get it, hurry up, before it shrinks!)

A long discussion followed on how to balance the IAPR budget. The Treasurer noted that even with the decrease in funds there is no immediate danger, especially when remembering that IAPR should never have funds above US $100,000, due to taxation rules in USA. The Secretary noted that there is no way of decreasing Newsletter costs other than printing less than four issues a year. The general feeling of the meeting seemed to be that the Newsletter should be supported. (Hear! Hear!). Eventually, a budget was accepted with a temporary reduction in resources of about US $12,000, with the proviso that the next Executive Committee will work on generating new income (lucky them!). The good news is that the 13th ICPR (in Vienna in 1996) is expected to generate US $37,000 for the IAPR, but in the meantime a US $5,000 loan was approved to get it started. And of course, plans had to be made for the 14th ICPR. Two proposals had been submitted for its location: Brighton in Britain and Brisbane in Australia. My heart was with Brisbane (I have never been to Australia) but my brain with Britain; (more accessible to European and US participants who form the bulk of the conference goers). Britain lost! So, Australia, here we come! (The only trouble is we have to wait until 1998!)

The other news was that the Technical Committee TC12 (Automatic Speech Recognition), was found asleep at a time of duty ("dormant" was the term used), and it was sent to the heaven where all "good" committees go when the time comes to meet their maker! It will be replaced by the "Multimedia and Communication Systems" committee which could easily absorb the activities on speech as well. Finally, the big moment came: The election of the new Executive Committee. The constitution of IAPR allows the nomination of candidates via two routes: either via the Nominating Committee, following a process that takes place a few months before the meeting, or during the Governing Board meeting following a different process. There were two candidates for the Presidency, one nominated via each route: Gunilla Borgefors via the Governing Board-Nominating Committee route and Josef Kittler nominated directly by members of the Governing Board there. I was asked to wait outside (with the two candidates) when the relevant discussion took place, so I missed all of it. However, I had the chance to capture the new President later on, at a time of lowered defences, and I am pleased to present him to you here:

[Picture of Josef Kittler]

And now, having dealt with the EVENT before the ISSUE, I will deal with the ISSUE after the EVENT! Well, it is that time of the year again!

I ant pleased to announce

THE 2nd IAPR NEWSLETTER COMPETITION!

Here is your chance to start the New Year

With the right foot! Take part in the

CROSSWORD COMPETITION

First Prize US $70

Send me a crossword which YOU made with definitions related to IAPR activities! Deadline: May 1995. And don't forget to send me the solution as well - it rather makes a difference!

Maria Petrou