This paper presents a discussion of strategic planning within social institutions and provides a planning agenda that focuses on modern trends, forecasts, and projections. First, the background of the strategic planning process is reviewed, and historical changes in the nature of modern technology are delineated, including a transformation in energy systems and developments in the areas of telecommunications, microcomputers, and genetic engineering. Next, the purposes of strategic planning are identified as the facilitation of the communications and organizational interaction necessary for the integration of strategic, operational, and logistical planning; and the development of executive or consensus decision making that is necessary to the implementation of a strategic plan. Finally, the paper discusses the dynamics of strategic planning meetings and processes. The bulk of the paper consists of a proposed agenda for strategic planning constructed through the year 2000, which is organized according to: (1) contracted future events that will contribute to public awareness; (2) energy-driven patterns that are a function of the transformation from a petroleum-based energy economy to a hybrid energy economy; (3) social and technologically driven patterns that accrue under the "energy umbrella"; and (4) institutionally driven response patterns that will help social institutions, such as government, higher education, and corporations, adapt to a changing environment. (Author/HB)