DPMA

Comments

1. Tera Flop says:

   My wife was an active DPMA member in 1993 in Augusta, GA. We still have a DPMA-engraved beer mug. From my recollection, it was an effective chapter to bring together ideas and experiences. Am unsure of the focus but A/S 400 was a hot item. I still have their news papers.
2. Bruce says:

   The Data Processing Management Organization (DPMA) began in 1949 as the National Machine Accountants Association (NMAA). NMAA was incorporated in late 1951 and held its first convention in 1952 in Minneapolis, MN. Ten years later, NMAA changed its name to expand its membership beyond finance and accounting professionals. The change to DPMA to enabled the organization to encompass the broadening spectrum of data processing users in the 1960s. DPMA retained the organizational structure of NMAA with numerous chapters placed in geographic divisions. Later these divisions were replaced with regions. Each region had a representative on the Executive Council who served with several executive officers and implemented policy decisions from the International Board of Directors.In 1997, DPMA was renamed the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP), to better reflect its broad membership.

   It was not associated solely with IBM machines, as one commenter suggested, although IBM probably had the largest share of users in DPMA. The records of the DPMA are housed at the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota.
3. dr larry dewayne miller says:

   please inform me of how to join the dpma, thank you!
4. Dick Anderson says:

   Probably not a lot of original members left out there. I was “recruted” by my brother in the early 60’s and servered as the secrcetary for a year of the Denver chapter. Still wear my tie tack occasionally just to generate conversation. I was looking at some of my old unit record manuals the other day while cleaning the garage (402, 085, 519 & etc. )and also still have a 3 ring binder with a bunch of “bits & piesces” wiring hints. (01-03-2011)
5. Guy Baron Jr. says:

   I was a member of DPMA from 1970 to 1978 when “IBM Unit Record Equipement” was phasing out and the IBM 360 series computer became the standard (along with the UNIVAC 9200 series and Buroughs). In 1977, as a membership director for the Montreal QC chapter I was assigned with the project of making the chapter bilingual since members were anglophone/francophone at the rate of 50%. At that time the Montreal Quebec Chapter adopted the title ACFOR as the french abreviation and therefore from that time on the Montreal chapter became published under DPMA/ACFOR and the local chapter monthly magasine “Bits & Bites” contained different articles both in french and english.
6. Mike Shroyer says:

   I was a member for quite some time. Unfortunately, when the name was changed to the AITP, DPMA effectively committed “suicide”. The ACM is software folks and professors, IEEE is for hardware folks, DPMA was the destination for folks, who after being promoted to management, wanted to deal with management issues. Removing the name management was a serious mistake.
7. Fred Chan says:

   It was the old Data Processing Management Association. It no longer exists. I was a member back in the 1980s and published an article for their Data Management magazine in July 1981. It was the conference issue for their national conference in San Francisco. It is now the AITP or Association of Information Technology Professionals. Back then, it was all IBM mainframes and COBOL.
8. Harold Coates says:

   You are right on target.
   Indeed there was a club in Shreveport, Louisiana that I was a member of in 1983-85 named Data Processing Managers Association. To my knowledge the club no longer exists. It was during the period when most companies had large main frame computers rather than numerous desktop systems.