From the OpenMPE Chairman:

To the HP3000 MPE Community:

This is a most difficult letter to write, especially considering that I
have been in the role of Chairman of the OpenMPE board for less than a
month.

OpenMPE needs additional monies - in short, your contributions.  Our
group that represents the MPE community has had a busy end of 2010, full
of developments and challenges we are working to solve.  We want to make
ourselves a resource for your needs, be it homesteading, emulator
implementation, and, to a lesser extent than in the past, an ongoing
advocacy role with HP.

We are grateful for the financial contributors whom have so generously
supported us in the past year.   The OpenMPE board wishes to extend very
special thanks and acknowledgments to Neil Harvey & Associates, ORBiT
Software Group, Inc. and Robelle Solutions Technology Inc. for their
very generous financial contributions.  We also wish to thank Abtech
Support, Allegro Consultants, Inc., Pivital Solutions, Inc., Terix
Computer Service and the 3000 Newswire for their contributions. 

As final mention, we thank our own board members for their recent
financial contributions:  Keith Wadsworth, Tony Tibbenham, Alan
Tibbetts, Tracy Johnson and lastly, myself.  Let me outline the work
that this new round of fund raising will do.

Current Extraordinary Expenses:

1.      Litigation

Last November OpenMPE removed its Treasurer, Matthew Perdue, from the
Board of Directors.  The former Treasurer has in turn filed suit against
OpenMPE, so we are in the midst of a united legal defense, with lawyers
representing two of our directors named as individuals in Perdue's suit,
as well as the organization as a whole.

Although we have initiated our defenses with funds provided by
individual board members, we will need additional funds to bring the
suit to closure.

We believe the suit has no merit.  However that is for the court of
Bexar County, Texas to decide.

2.      Reorganization
 
We are restructuring OpenMPE to function as a truly viable corporation,
one which includes a mission statement with a business plan to support
it. We will move forward as a self-sustaining entity.

We have also obtained directors and officers insurance to protect
present and future board members from individual liability. 

While the loss of the original Invent3K HP3000 server and cash related
to the dismissal of our former treasurer have put our 2010 tax liability
at zero, our CPA still must be paid for preparation and filing of those
documents.

There are also attendant legal fees required to reorganize OpenMPE
properly.

3.  Infrastructure

Although Client Systems was kind enough to contribute another HP3000
(which happens to be the old MPE Source machine from Cupertino) for
Invent3K to replace the one lost, shipping was not free.

Due to the misdirection of the OpenMPE.org domain, which was also under
Perdue's control, OpenMPE has accepted an offer to lease the OpenMPE.com
domain from Steve Cooper of Allegro Consultants.

There are a number of additional small expenses, such as a USPS PO box,
which, while not large individually, do mount up.

Path Forward

Here is what post-2010 OpenMPE is proposing as its focus.

1.  Advocacy

We have taken some first steps to re-engage with HP to assist in areas
crucial to the community.

*  Upgrades to HP 3000s are a murky area at the moment, something we
hope to help with by shaping HP process and policy.

*  HP subsystems for Stromasys' Zelus emulator will no doubt be needed
as well as O/S upgrades.  

*  Releasing HP approved solutions to alleviate down time due to system
board changes by third party support vendors -- which result in
HPSUSAN/HPCPUNAME changes and disabling of third party tools and
products.

2.  Products  

Client Systems has agreed to offer HP subsystems through OpenMPE at 50%
off HP list price.  This is but one of several developments we are
pursuing to serve our community.

If approved by HP, a tool/patch to load on existing HP3000s which can be
activated when a system board is changed to allow the system to return
to production and set up a scheduled HPCE visit to properly set the
stable storage.

Invent3K has been implemented on two servers with much of the CSL,
Interex proceedings, and, hopefully, at least some of the Jazz content
will soon be available.

As mentioned above, Client Systems provided the new Invent3Ksystem and
subsystems.  Hosting for this primary server is provided by David Floyd
and the team at The Support Group. Tracy Johnson, Secretary/Treasurer
(and Invent3K system manager), hosts the mirror system at Measurement
Specialties, Inc.

Invent3K can be reached via VT-MGR, NS/VT, or TELNET at
Invent3K.openmpe.com.

For those having an Invent3K account, access to compilers and HP tools
provides a more or less virtual development space.

New Website: As mentioned above, OpenMPE lost control of its domain name
www.openmpe.org  (which was redirected for some time to HP.COM and, at
last check, now goes to GoDaddy.)

Again, thanks to Steve Cooper of Allegro Consultants, we have been able
to respond to this issue which put OpenMPE in internet limbo and can now
be found at OpenMPE.com.

Please revise your bookmarks to visit our site at the new address.  The
web site is available once more and ready for you with development and
technical resources.

A Reasonable Funding Goal

Given the expected costs of the outlined items, OpenMPE considers
$50,000 as a reasonable goal to secure a viable future.

These monies will cover insurance, operating costs for our servers, and
funds to provide legal services to answer the lawsuit.  The community
can already enjoy some services, and others are on track now:

    1)  We are Hosting INVENT3K accounts.  Contact us to get your
account on this public access development server stocked with HP's
subsystem software.

    2)  We are hosting the classic Interex conference proceedings
online, the first time these tech papers have been available since
Interex closed down.

In the future, we'll be hosting former Jazz services. We'll also
providing MPE support vendor referrals - and, as mentioned earlier, in a
new venture with Client Systems, we will be selling HP subsystem
programs at a 50 percent discount.

Some of you may remember we announced we'd charge $99 US for exclusive
subscriptions to our Invent3K machine, but were asked to hold off on
payment.

With the removal of the former Treasurer, we had to restart our bank
account, but we are again able to receive funds.

From our website, you can send a PayPal payment for those accounts
you've signed up for; we'll be sending invoices shortly for those of you
who require them for business purposes.

For the rest of our community, we need your help in contributions of any
kind. You may send checks to: 

OpenMPE, Inc.
P.O. Box 3524
Hampton, VA  23663-0524

Please get in touch with us with your questions and ideas, and watch our
websites (openmpe.com, as well as our OpenMPE News blog) for more
developments.

We look forward to moving ahead with your assistance and guidance.

Sincerely,
Jack Connor
Chairman, OpenMPE Board
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