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future times |
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| Spring 2007 | |||
In This Issue
future times Archive
From the Desk of the President As we enter a new year, opportunities for the Society and its membership seem endless. After a very successful Toronto conference (one of the best attended in recent times) we are already leaping into an exciting Minnesota event. An expanded learning track, an interactive Futures Wheel facility and even a regional futures day all promise an innovative agenda. One of the wonderful qualities about the World Future Society is when I ask, "How can we improve?" nobody is shy and we get loads of great suggestions and offers of assistance. This year, I am stepping up the level of interaction with WFS members by starting a Presidents Web Log, so those that want to advise, complain or even congratulate can have the opportunity to do so. One of my primary principles of good foresight is that assumptions should be clarified, so conclusions can be assessed properly. Accordingly, I will be clarifying my assumptions where I am able, and all our members and colleagues can have the pleasure of setting me straight if I leave the path of common sense. This sort of dialogue is what I believe the World Future Society is all about; sharing ideas, hopes and visions about possible futures, as well as trading tools and techniques. It is another step toward a global futures community. Once again, we are ramping up the involvement of the Society with students and youth at a range of ages, working to inspire a new generation of futurists. This year’s conference will include the participation of the Future City program, which explores building the future in engineering and the social sciences for middle school students in the US and overseas countries such as India. In the US alone, 30,000 young people compete each year in teams to design the transport, energy, health and commercial communities of the future, building scale models and explaining their innovative ideas in written and oral format. This presentation will also showcase the work of the 2006 Minnesota regional winning team, who will attend the conference. Finally, as WFS continues to expand our presence around the world, I am speaking this spring in Korea at the invitation of the South Korean government, and we have been fortunate enough to establish Korean strategic partnerships in recent years with the Seoul Broadcasting System, the Korean Academy of Sciences, and Sogang University in Seoul, which is establishing a research institute on the future. For more information about the very active Korean WFS Chapter, please see the Chapter Profile in this issue. Tech Notes Automobile systems that watch the driver’s face, eyes, and head angle to detect inattention and/or drowsiness, and this issues verbal alerts in case of problems. Still hurtles of correct interpretation to solve for the software, so several years away. [Saab, Nissan] New brain-machine interface with robots and computers that moves beyond an electrode implant or special user training to an MRI link which detects neural activity relating to muscle movement and duplicates it in mechanical form. Still a seven-second delay and 85% accuracy but improving. [Honda, ATR Computational Neuroscience] When the most destructive earthquake in recorded US history took place in 1906 along 300 miles of the San Andreas fault, it affected 19 California counties. At present there are 10 people living in that region and comparable earthquake damage estimates run as much as $120 billion with up to 3,400 deaths, largely from building collapse. Accordingly, NSF’s Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation’s work on new approaches to damage mitigation have gotten a lot of attention. One of the most promising approaches uses existing technologies in innovative ways, i.e. a ‘self-centering’ for central support columns. It utilized friction plates gigantic steel bands encased in plastic which allow the building frame to separate, rock and twist independently without the collapse of the structure, ultimately pulling the columns and beams back into their original position. While actual use in a building is as much as 15 years away, the system has already stood high energy stress testing in airplane hanger-sized facilities that exert much greater pressure than an earthquake. The national government of Norway has begun work on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which will be a cavern carved into the permafrost 600 miles from the North Pole as a hedge against worldwide environmental catastrophe. These might include plant epidemics, nuclear war, radical climate change or natural disasters. In partnership with the nonprofit Global Crop Diversity Trust, the Norwegian Dept. of Agriculture will begin collecting as many as three million seeds from around the world in 2007 for food crops of all types. The success of Brazil in becoming energy independent on ethanol from sugar cane has sent the US and other countries scrambling for similar resources. Unfortunately, the unique climate cannot be exported and so other routes of inexpensive ethanol are being explored. While corn is already a ready source of fuel supplements in the United States, the principles of industrial ecology that the most economically viable sources of raw materials are those materials now viewed as waste products. These materials fall into the vast category of biomass, and include grain straw, corn stubble or stove and wood waste (including scrap paper). New biotech enzymes now allow the breaking down of these tough materials into cellulose ready to be fermented and distilled. Although still a more complex process than sugar cane ethanol, biomass seems to offer a more optimistic fuel-related future for North America. [Verasun Energy] A new technology, initially using scanning laser opthalmoscopes projects images, words and other visual information directly onto the retinas of the visually impaired. Not only can it assist in reading, but navigation and learning. The technology is moving toward affordable, portable "virtual reality" for the visually impaired, perhaps with a pair of glasses. [MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies]. Trades once seen as time-honored artisan crafts are now entering the 21st century, for example the making of Tennessee single batch whiskey. The analysis of sugar maple filtration charcoal using near-IR spectroscopy and the calibration of the interior charring of white oak aging casks using mid-range spectroscopy to measure thermally dependent chemical shifts represent a new age in quality control in an industry previously managed by the educated guess. These photonic methods allow these quality control measurements to be done while of distilling process goes forward uninterrupted. Chapter News and Events
Return to top The National Capital Region of WFS Announces Book Club Selections for Spring 2007
When you form a WFS chapter or join an existing chapter, you are entering a business and should familiarize yourself with applicable business law. Because laws vary from state to state and situations vary by chapter, the Society can only provide general information about these issues. This should not be considered legal advice, and your safest option is to investigate your own situation with the assistance of a local attorney. Chapters are separate legal entities from the World Future Society (an IRS-recognized 501(c)3 exempt charity, incorporated in the District of Columbia). Contributions to chapters are not deductible on US tax returns as contributions to the World Future Society. Dues and meeting fees may be deductible as business or investment expenses depending on the individual’s tax situation. By recruiting members, preparing by-laws, and electing officers, your chapter becomes an "unincorporated association." As long as your chapter doesn’t generate "net income," there should be no tax liability and no reporting requirements. The members and officers of an unincorporated association are personally liable for the debts of the association, so it is wise to keep expenses and especially commitments modest. You can avoid handling significant amounts of money by using email to announce your meetings, meeting in free space at libraries, schools, member’s homes, cafeteria-style restaurants that make individual payments convenient, or arranging a fixed-price dinner that would allow the restaurant to collect the fee. If you decide to collect money for dues, events, book sales, etc., you’ll need to establish procedures to account for it. You may have your treasurer handle the money personally, keeping careful records of receipts and expenses for review by the chapter board. To open an account in the chapter’s name, you will need an Employer Identification Number from the IRS (www.irs.gov). Remember your unincorporated association should avoid generating taxable income, so get a non-interest-bearing account, and maintain adequate records to show that receipts are used solely to pay chapter expenses. You may choose to incorporate your chapter as a nonprofit corporation in your home state (or another jurisdiction) generally by filing articles of incorporation and paying a filing fee. This can involve additional time and expense, but does provide state recognition of your nonprofit status and limits the liability of members and officers. By itself, it does not grant you IRS recognition as a tax-exempt organization. For contributions to be tax deductible, the receiving organization must be recognized as a tax-exempt, charitable organization under IRS regulation 501(c)3 (While the World Future Society is so recognized, the Society’s tax exemption specifically excludes chapters.) IRS recognition is a time-consuming process and has a filing fee currently $300 for an organization that has averaged or expects to average less than $10,000 annual revenue over its first or most-recent four years. Editor’s Note: Please understand that this information is a highly simplified summary of the numerous legal issues that should be considered when starting a chapter. Each locality is different, and there is no substitute for the assistance of a licensed attorney. However, for addition generic information on this subject: see http://www.bizfilings.com/learning/taxexempt.as
Contributing Editors:
Timothy Mack, Susan
Echard COPYRIGHT © 2006 WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, Maryland 20814. Tel. 301-656-8274. E-mail info@wfs.org. Web site http://www.wfs.org. |
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