I started out the OpenMPE session yesterday with an observation (or two).

1)  The OpenMPE session timeslot was changed twice to my knowledge and then
again without my knowledge prior to the actually session.

2)  If you look at the HP World program guide you can find the OpenMPE session
listed at three different times.  One place it says "4:10 pm", another
says "5:20 pm", and yet another says "5:30 pm".

3)  Dave Wilde's MPE Kick-off session was in room B316 (at the far end of
the 'B' corridor) and was immediately followed by the OpenMPE session (or so I
thought) in room C102 (at the far end of the 'C' corridor).  To get from one
to the other took 10 - 20 minutes depending on if you ran or walked.

4)  The HP3000 Customer Needs Panel session and one (of only two) homesteading
sessions is scheduled at the exact same time.

   Now I'm an optimistic sort of person, so I choose to believe there is not a
coordinated effort or conspiracy going on (you can draw your only
conclusions).  I do, however, believe this shows the continued decrease in MPE
focus and interest among the larger HP User Group.  I'm not attacking that.
After all, with the infusion of Compaq users, MPE users are a smaller part of
the "whole".  Then when you take the MPE users and divide them further into
the OpenMPE users (read, users that choose to stay with MPE for whatever
reason or time beyond the end of 2006) and you get an even smaller group.

   To me this is a red flag that we need to secure our own future quickly
before we no longer have one (as a group).

Thanx,
   Jon Backus