Hello everyone
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How was November for you? If you are a Kantara member involving yourself or your organization in its activities, it won't have escaped your attention just how busy all facets of the organization have been. We concluded November with the Members' Annual General Meeting, the most well attended ever. In past years we have used international conferences in the US and Europe as a venue which was great for face to face interaction but was necessarily restricted in attendee numbers by its very nature... I guess one positive for stay-at-home 2020. It was a pleasure to reflect back on the year's activity together with the Working Group Chairs as they reviewed their Group's activities, President Matt with other Board members sharing the preliminary results of the strategic review for discussion and comment, with our global family pitching in. How blessed we are. By the numbers we received double the expressions of interest in conformity assessment, assurance and grant of trust mark in our Trust Framework Operations program, doubled our publications, doubled our responses to requests for comment on consultations on digital identity around the world, slightly increased our Membership and launched the Privacy & Identity for mDL Discussion Group. All up, a satisfactory year and you can see the AGM materials here on the website. But wait, there's more! 
. We announced the winners of the inaugural Exemplary Contributor Awards to individuals, regardless of their membership standing, who have tirelessly volunteered with group work, attended calls and promoted Kantara's unique qualities to the world as judged by Working Group Officers. It was great to be able to recognize the efforts of Noreen Whysel, Oscar Santolalla, Catherine Schulten, Tom Jones and Richard Wilsher and thank them in a meaningful way for their service and unflagging dedication.
The supreme (largely volunteer) efforts of the Identity Assurance Working Group to develop the assessment criteria as well as the Assurance Review Board that govern the scheme, are both foundational to the operation of the the Trust Framework and deserve a special mention here. It was great to see the successful All-Member-Ballot approving the 63C and level 3's of the Kantara NIST SP 800-63-3 criteria (IAF Major Release) with the support of ID.me that underwrote the costs of the technical editor. Kantara's community oriented, transparent and cost-free Work & Discussion Groups - Identity Assurance, Health Identity Assurance, Privacy & Identity mDL to support ISO 18013-5, Federation Federated Identifiers for Resilient Ecosystems (FIRE), Federation Interop, Information Sharing Interop and UMA - all play, beyond the great outputs they achieve in their own right (here's a great recent example from the FIRE WG - Mobile Authentication Assurance Statement), an important role as feeders into Kantara's Trust scheme. And behind the Work & Discussion Groups, stands the grant funding vehicles of the Kantara Foundation and Kantara Europe to seek and operate Applied R&D projects.
Looking forward to this month, November, members will see emails on various matters as we prepare for 2021, starting with a heads-up on what's to come. The Annual General Meeting is coming up at the end of the month where President Matt will share the strategy work that the Board has been focussed on in recent months to seek your feedback, and the Work and Discussion Group Chairs will share the results of their efforts and work plans for next year. There will be a November had other activities also. I was a panelist on the UK's Think Digital Identity for Government virtual conference which is always great value, and was on 3 panels for Identity Week UK the week after. Members received emails on the call for nominations for the two Directors at Large positions for 2021 from the general organization membership, and a sneak peek more information at a new 'view' of our membership , spread across the world as it is. Finally, there's a reward for members' support this year with complimentary VIP Guest Passes to an upcoming event.
Speaking of members' support, thank you so much to the following organizations and individuals that have renewed recently: GakuNin (Japan), Easy Dynamics Corp (USA), Airside (USA) and Individual Contributors Lorrayne Auld, Ian Glazer, and Sal D'Agostino.
For me personally too, November is busy, as the 2020 (now virtual) conference season draws to a close. I will be a panelist at Think Digital Identity for Government and moderator and multiple panelist at Identity Week. Never being one to hold back what I really think on digital identity related topics, please join the fun at these events!
Onwards! coming in early in the New Year. It was great to welcome new members Tim Reiniger us and membership renewals from Wedacon in Germany, 2Keys in Canada, ITIM Consulting in Canada and Individual Contributors Silvia Knittl, Sal D'Agostino and Vitor Jesus.
December will be very busy for Staff as we prepare a new fresh look for the website with improved navigation as we continually improve the information architecture for the increasing amount and range of material Kantara publishes. It remains for me to wish you a very blessed Christmas for those that celebrate it and a Happy New Year! See you on the other side .
Onwards to 2021 and all that it has in store for us personally and our expanding and diverse community.
Kind regards,
Colin
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