The organization dedicated to extending the life of HP 3000 operating system MPE has opened up the hood on its own mechanics after wringing a first draft on new MPE licenses from HP. OpenMPE’s leadership had already shifted by the time it succeeded in getting HP to break the news about selling new MPE licenses for those 3000 hardware emulators which are going up on the drawing boards. The professional non-profit group had lost a couple of its application-related board members late last fall, when Ecometry’s CEO John Marrah and Genesis Total Solutions’ (GTS) Chris Miller resigned their posts from the nine-member board. Just after HP’s licensing announcement surfaced, OpenMPE’s board announced that it had filled the two seats with volunteers the board selected from the customer and consultant communities. The replacements are Ron Horner and Donna Garverick. Horner has been using the HP 3000 for 15 years, operates his own consulting firm, and has been a contributing author for the NewsWire in our Homestead Advisor column. Garverick has been using the HP 3000 for 22 years, chaired the SIG SysMan special interest group, serves as the co-chair of SIG MPE, and continues to work on MPE in the Long’s Drug IT empire.

The two seats were vacated halfway through their two-year term. Both Ecometry’s Marrah and GTS’ Miller said they admire the objectives of OpenMPE, but their companies are both pursuing migration goals today. Ecometry and the GTS’ accounting packages are headed toward NT and HP-UX ports — Ecometry is already there — and the two application company leaders knew they couldn’t devote much time to OpenMPE’s meetings and organization tasks. OpenMPE’s board meeting minutes reflected this, since Marrah and Miller were often not present for meetings. “John and Chris did struggle at times to have the available extra time for this effort, but then so do all of us,” OpenMPE’s chairman Jon Backus reported in a posting to the OpenMPE mailing list. “Both of them were great supporters of the effort and good team members.” Miller said that “My resignation should not be perceived as a disavowing of OpenMPE or its goals by myself or GTS, Inc. I believe that there is definitely a place for this organization in the support of MPE customers for the next several years.” Marrah said in his resignation letter that “I still believe that OpenMPE will work with HP to achieve the OpenMPE mission. Please continue to view me as a supporter and Friend of OpenMPE. Based upon the activities of OpenMPE and HP, our customers can breathe more easily.”

Horner and Garverick will complete these directors’ original terms, but their appointments change the composition of the group in practice. When OpenMPE was formed, the organization’s board had representatives from both the utility vendor and application vendor communities. Later on, the bylaws permitted the organization’s membership to be made up of one-third users or consultants, one-third vendors of any product or service related to MPE, and one-third of its members unrestricted. OpenMPE may still have such application vendor membership in the months to come. The organization is holding its annual vote for board of directors, with four board seats up for election, seats which have been held by Backus, Ted Ashton, MB Foster’s Birket Foster, and Mark Klein (profiled in this issue’s Q&A interview). The board spots don’t have term limits, and OpenMPE reported in the first week of March that it was seeking nominations of potential candidates. Results of the voting will be announced by March 28, when OpenMPE holds its initial Annual Membership Meeting, 1 PM at the Valley Forge e3000 Migration and Solutions Symposium. For more details on the OpenMPE board, point your browser at www.openmpe.org/OpenMPEBoardVN.htm