Thanks to large-scale high-dynamic range surveys of local star-forming  
regions, it has become possible to evaluate the likelihood that any  
particular bundle of gas will or will not become part of a star at  
some point in the next N years.  I will discuss how this is done now,  
and how methods for evaluating the "reservoir" of star-forming  
material at any point in time may be improved in the near future.   
Lastly, I will consider how our understanding of local star formation  
relates to empirical relationships like the "Schmidt-Kennicutt law"  
typically used as prescriptions for star formation in extragalactic  
work.