Report presented in July 2002 Planning Committee Meeting

Jose Cordeiro, President of the Sociedad Mundial del Futuro Venezuela (SMFV) and chair of the Venezuela Node of the Millennium Project, presented the report.

 Sociedad Mundial del Futuro Venezuela (SMFV) was formally established during 2001 in Caracas, Venezuela. Our inspiration came from the recently deceased Arturo Uslar Pietri, the most prominent Venezuelan intellectual and a famous Latin American writer. Since its founding, the SMFV created an International Advisory Board (which includes Jerome Glenn and Norio Yamamoto) of prominent futurists in different areas and established links with internationally-recognized futurist groups like the World Future Society (WFS), the World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF), the Club of Rome, the Club of Budapest, the Association International des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (AIESEC), and, obviously, the Millennium Project (MP).

The SMFV official launch was on May 23, 2001, with the participation of Robert Mundell, 1999 Nobel Prize Laureate, known as the “father” of the euro and working now towards a world currency. For our first anniversary, Patricio Aylwin, former president of Chile, will talk about the future of Latin America.
 In 2001 we participated actively in the MP Science and Technology survey, gathering about a dozen answers from top-ranking people in government, private enterprise and academia. The answers came not only from Venezuela but also from our contacts in Colombia, Ecuador, México and Perú.

SMFV also wrote a short book review in Spanish about the “State of the Future 2001” work and published some partial translations of it on our web page: www.FuturoVenezuela.org. We also commented on the “terrorist scenarios” after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. We have also been active promoting the ideas and work of the MP at different international gatherings, not just in the 2001 WFS meeting in Minneapolis, but also in the 2001 WFSF in Brasov, Romania, and in the 2001 Club of Rome meeting in Valdivia, Chile. Some prominent members of the Club of Rome were highly impressed by the SOFI work and wanted to know more about it, from Brasil to Germany, and from Switzerland to Australia. They later wrote themselves about the “State of the Future 2001” or the SOFI.

 The MP book on methodology has also been used extensively at the first official course in futures studies in Caracas, at the important Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV). Students have also used the SOFI work, even though there are some problems concerning the lack of materials in Spanish.
 During 2002, and going forward, we plan to continue participating and contributing to the goals of the Millennium Project. We are particularly interested in the work on methodology (updating and translating) and further developing the SOFI (including country indexes).

Jose Cordeiro, President of the Sociedad Mundial del Futuro Venezuela (SMFV) and chair of the Venezuela Node of the Millennium Project, presented the last events and activities of the Node at the July 2002 Planning Committee meeting.

Jose informed the audience on the outcomes of the vizit in Venezuela of  Jerome C. Glenn, Director of the Millennium Project. Mr. Glenn had several meetings:

• with futurists from Venezuela-- key note address to the World Future Society/Venezuela conference "Escenarios para Venezuela Post-Petrolera" - covered global change and implications for Venezuela
• Ministry of Science and Technology-- briefing on results of the global assessment of management implications of future issues of science and technology. They asked for continued contact
• Petroleos de Venezuela, Sociedad Anonima (PDVSA), the largest oil company in Venezuela and also in all of Latin America, with operations in over 40 countries around the world. There was a broad press coverage of the meeting. The interactive (open) presentation and discussions focussed on the long-term scenarios for energy, carbon-based energy strategies, and new energy sources.