# Seeking advise...



## Orly51 (Jan 17, 2013)

I've been working on putting together a team or community of dedicated and talented Preppers. There is power and resources in numbers. This project has not been easy so I'm seeking advice on how to successfully put a group together to train and prepare for a natural or man made disaster. 

So far we have 3 solid members and 2 newbies in our group. Our challenges are: meeting regularly, finances, some political differences and the new guys lack of urgency and seriousness. 

Anyone here in a group, crew, clan, team, or whatever your calling it that can help? All serious and knowledgable advice offered will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


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## Recon911 (Mar 15, 2013)

Orly51 said:


> I've been working on putting together a team or community of dedicated and talented Preppers. There is power and resources in numbers. This project has not been easy so I'm seeking advice on how to successfully put a group together to train and prepare for a natural or man made disaster.
> 
> So far we have 3 solid members and 2 newbies in our group. Our challenges are: meeting regularly, finances, some political differences and the new guys lack of urgency and seriousness.
> 
> Anyone here in a group, crew, clan, team, or whatever your calling it that can help? All serious and knowledgable advice offered will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


 To Orly51,
As in any group or team, you need to determine what everyone's interests are and what each member is willing to contribute to the group and cause. Keep your goals realistic and find ways to keep everyone's interest. I would suggest that you start calling it a disaster preparedness group or team before you start calling yourselves Preppers and I will explain why. If your first approach is for disaster preparedness, then everyone will start with educational aspect of what you are trying to accomplish first and everyone will feel that they have something to contribute equally. 
Once everyone has had time to get to know each other, it will be easier to determine everyone's strength and interests, then you can explore from there. Then it's time to start organizing your group from that point and begin to move forward. To add strength to your group and to show how serious you, start planning the activities of your group in realistic steps. May I suggest that your group learn all that it can by taking the free FEMA classes that are now being offered within your community and courses that are offered online. This makes for a good starting point in the educational process. Next, start equipping yourselves for free by signing up for the free C.E.R.T training classes in your area. You might have to check with your local Fire Department or your local Department of Emergency Management office. At the completion of this class, you obtain a green backpack that has two First Aid kits, one for you & one for the walking wounded. Most kits come with a helmet,gloves,googles, E-tool, flashlight, a headlamp and many other goodies. The other positive benefit you will get from this CERT Training is meeting other like-minded individuals like yourselves to team up with locally. This will make your group stronger because each new person has different assets and skill sets to add to the group. 
There is a lot more that I could add to this thread but let's take this step by step. I hope this gives you some ideas and direction to start off with and as you and your team get more involved in trying to make a big difference to your community and as more people learn about your group, many doors will begin to open and some of that could involve ways to help fund your group. 
I hope this was helpful and I will try to follow this thread to see your response and to determine if this is what you are looking for and good luck!


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## GroovyMike (Feb 25, 2010)

Join existing groups such as a First Responder (ambulance) team, Search and Rescue team, Fire department, CHURCH congregation with an action plan for disaster relief, Red Cross volunteers, Hunter Safety Class instructor team, Food Pantry workers, etc. etc.


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## Aliaysonfire (Dec 18, 2012)

Hello! Congrats for starting a group. It's tough, so look at the challenges you'll encounter as growing experiences! Positivity will take you much farther than you would think!

I started my own group in December and have have several reliable members and several so-so members and then several that want me to include them on the mailing list but haven't shown at any of our meetings (trying to not say unreliable but yada yada yada). 
Like the previous poster- focusing on education has been the unifying factor for us. I'd suggest starting with a mission statement (yes I know it sounds silly) but it really severs me well in making decisions toward what activities we should pursue.
Our mission focuses on individual preps with group training and one day a group bug out location. 
I started out by writing out a welcome letter, outlining what topics we would cover every month, and what was expected for each member of the group- always asking for input from the group and making it open for change as much as possible. 
There's a pre meeting letter, discussing what topics we will be talking about, finishing out details if we are meeting off site and what should you bring to the meeting. 
Group meetings are easy enough because of the pre letter. We talk and then have a show and tell, pot luck food and then an accountability session where we all share one thing we did during the last 30 days to prepare. Whether its research, starting a garden, or buying a bucket of food or even a few cans of tuna- everyone has to do something for themselves. 
The post meeting letter lets those know what happened that didn't make it. 

The people who make their opinions known and are most reliable. 

As a new leader, I suggest you try and look up some leadership development education so you can learn how to motivate and help others see the leader in themselves because each members' job to to lead their family to a state of preparedness. 

It's easy to get discouraged and quit. Even leaders make mistakes. This provides you a unique opportunity to grow yourself though so don't shy away!  I know I'm sounding like a motivational speaker, but really, that's a big part of it. You can have all the skill and respect due to that, but to be a leader you have be able to empower your members with confidence to seek out info, and be even more involved in the group. You do that by being positive and being a good role model.


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## Aliaysonfire (Dec 18, 2012)

And like other posters have said- learning about disaster preparedness is friggen amazing for resources. I'm already in the public service industry, as a fire fighter/paramedic. I started out as volunteer and have gotten a lot of great training along the way. A lot of the members in the group are also in public service. That helps us have something to yak about too. 

Putting people in charge of stuff- delegation- makes other have ownership of that task and more committed to the group- and everyone can be in charge of something


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

I am part of a loosely-connected-MAG - or *M*utual *A*id *G*roup.

Our outdoor meetings are held deep in the woods to the west, our "in-town" meetings are held in a little pub with a private room and we are all independant of each other, but, know that we each have each other's best interests in mind.

We met because of our outdoor-pursuits ... offroading, motorcycling, hiking, fishing, hunting, etc. We built trust in each other first and from there, we built the MAG - it has no cool name, it has no fees, it has nothing that can be found by others looking in ...

You can read my story about the MAG that I am part of in the stories-section here on the forum - many of the parts-n-pieces of the story is true, names changed to protect the innocent and some parts have been embellished a little bit to make it more interesting ... but ... the whole thing *is* based on reality.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

Keep finances out of it, everyone needs to own their own stuff. Things go bad quick when there's money involved.


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## DCcam87 (Mar 4, 2013)

Getting any type of group together for any reason can be difficult. One of the biggest difficulties you will have is not getting new members to join your group, but to keep the current members of the group interested enough that they will stay and want to participate. My personal opinion would just try and get everybody in your group together once a month. If you only meet once a month people will have plent of time to plan and prepare for your next meeting without feeling rushed and pressured. If that works out then maybe you could try once ever two or three weeks. When you talk of finance, are you talking about peoples personal finance or peopel more or less purchasing items for your group? If it is personal finanace you really can't do anything about it, but if it is for your group try and keep your meetings down to a $20 maximum on what is needed. Politics. Leave politics out. Take a rule from bartenders, the two things bartenders won't (shouldn't) talk about with customers is politics and religion. Those two topics can cause more fights and problems then what it is worth. The problem you are having with lack of urgency with some of your members is a pretty easy fix. At one of your meetings try setting up some type of practical exercise that everyone can do. Doesn't have to cost money, just something small like learning to improvise a tourniquete. All you need is a old shirt/rag and and a stick. Get them into it and see how they are. Maybe it will spark some interest with them if they start to do some hands on stuff. If it doesn't maybe it is time to cut slingload on them. You have to think, if SHTF would you want them around? On just a side note, I would have a member of your group give a small class/demonstration at each of your meetings. Rotate the member that is giving the class/demonstration every meeting. This also might help spark peoples interest in the group. I am not part of a group but if I could find a group around where I live like that I would be excited to go to every meeting. (All this is coming from my military time spent on leading soldiers)


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## Recon911 (Mar 15, 2013)

NaeKid said:


> I am part of a loosely-connected-MAG - or Mutual Aid Group.
> 
> Our outdoor meetings are held deep in the woods to the west, our "in-town" meetings are held in a little pub with a private room and we are all independant of each other, but, know that we each have each other's best interests in mind.
> 
> ...


 I've read some good points here and one thing you might want to try to keep interest in your group is to have some form "Tabletop exercises" and remember to keep your goals h as possible. 
Once you've got your short term and long term goal set for your group,then try to make some a dry run to discover flaws in you group's plan's and fix them. This will keep everyone interested and self-rate your groups plans. 
Another good place to start is for everyone to pack "Go bags" and remember to use nothing but ziplock baggies to keep items dry and to make your "go bags" float if you find yourself trying to avoid any flood waters.
Set the example for the group and don't ask anyone in the group to do something that you couldn't yourselves and never be afraid to ask for help. This is how you will earn respect within your group and it also shows good leadership skills. Away from the group, you may want to do some volunteer work with an NGO and believe it or not, this is also a unique way to land a very good paying, full-time job also.
I hope I've answered most of your questions and there has been good suggestions by everyone posting so far. Putting together a"Wish List" for yourself and for the group is also and try to meet those goals little by little each month. Good luck!


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## Recon911 (Mar 15, 2013)

Recon911 said:


> To Orly51,
> As in any group or team, you need to determine what everyone's interests are and what each member is willing to contribute to the group and cause. Keep your goals realistic and find ways to keep everyone's interest. I would suggest that you start calling it a disaster preparedness group or team before you start calling yourselves Preppers and I will explain why. If your first approach is for disaster preparedness, then everyone will start with educational aspect of what you are trying to accomplish first and everyone will feel that they have something to contribute equally.
> Once everyone has had time to get to know each other, it will be easier to determine everyone's strength and interests, then you can explore from there. Then it's time to start organizing your group from that point and begin to move forward. To add strength to your group and to show how serious you, start planning the activities of your group in realistic steps. May I suggest that your group learn all that it can by taking the free FEMA classes that are now being offered within your community and courses that are offered online. This makes for a good starting point in the educational process. Next, start equipping yourselves for free by signing up for the free C.E.R.T training classes in your area. You might have to check with your local Fire Department or your local Department of Emergency Management office. At the completion of this class, you obtain a green backpack that has two First Aid kits, one for you & one for the walking wounded. Most kits come with a helmet,gloves,googles, E-tool, flashlight, a headlamp and many other goodies. The other positive benefit you will get from this CERT Training is meeting other like-minded individuals like yourselves to team up with locally. This will make your group stronger because each new person has different assets and skill sets to add to the group.
> There is a lot more that I could add to this thread but let's take this step by step. I hope this gives you some ideas and direction to start off with and as you and your team get more involved in trying to make a big difference to your community and as more people learn about your group, many doors will begin to open and some of that could involve ways to help fund your group.
> I hope this was helpful and I will try to follow this thread to see your response and to determine if this is what you are looking for and good luck!


Somehow missing the word "realistic" above and I am discovering that these iPhones keys are pretty sensitive,lol.


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## Orly51 (Jan 17, 2013)

Recon911 said:


> To Orly51,
> As in any group or team, you need to determine what everyone's interests are and what each member is willing to contribute to the group and cause. Keep your goals realistic and find ways to keep everyone's interest. I would suggest that you start calling it a disaster preparedness group or team before you start calling yourselves Preppers and I will explain why. If your first approach is for disaster preparedness, then everyone will start with educational aspect of what you are trying to accomplish first and everyone will feel that they have something to contribute equally.
> Once everyone has had time to get to know each other, it will be easier to determine everyone's strength and interests, then you can explore from there. Then it's time to start organizing your group from that point and begin to move forward. To add strength to your group and to show how serious you, start planning the activities of your group in realistic steps. May I suggest that your group learn all that it can by taking the free FEMA classes that are now being offered within your community and courses that are offered online. This makes for a good starting point in the educational process. Next, start equipping yourselves for free by signing up for the free C.E.R.T training classes in your area. You might have to check with your local Fire Department or your local Department of Emergency Management office. At the completion of this class, you obtain a green backpack that has two First Aid kits, one for you & one for the walking wounded. Most kits come with a helmet,gloves,googles, E-tool, flashlight, a headlamp and many other goodies. The other positive benefit you will get from this CERT Training is meeting other like-minded individuals like yourselves to team up with locally. This will make your group stronger because each new person has different assets and skill sets to add to the group.
> There is a lot more that I could add to this thread but let's take this step by step. I hope this gives you some ideas and direction to start off with and as you and your team get more involved in trying to make a big difference to your community and as more people learn about your group, many doors will begin to open and some of that could involve ways to help fund your group.
> I hope this was helpful and I will try to follow this thread to see your response and to determine if this is what you are looking for and good luck!


Hello recon911,

I truly appreciate your advice. A wealth of suggestions I had not considered. I absolutely agree with your point about NOT calling it 'prepper" and that using the term disaster preparedness would be a better approach. The training classes you suggested are a great source of information and will helps us. I will take your advice. Sincere thanks!



Aliaysonfire said:


> Hello! Congrats for starting a group. It's tough, so look at the challenges you'll encounter as growing experiences! Positivity will take you much farther than you would think!
> 
> I started my own group in December and have have several reliable members and several so-so members and then several that want me to include them on the mailing list but haven't shown at any of our meetings (trying to not say unreliable but yada yada yada).
> Like the previous poster- focusing on education has been the unifying factor for us. I'd suggest starting with a mission statement (yes I know it sounds silly) but it really severs me well in making decisions toward what activities we should pursue.
> ...


Hello Aliaysonfire,

Thank you kindly for your advice. You are VERY motivational but it's exactly the push I've been needing to remain encouraged and focused. There are three of us in public service including myself. We seem to be the most motivated. The others need the extra push "incentive" to stay on mission. They are still working on putting together a back pack lol.

We do have mission statement, a motto and a few basic rules. We do not have a leader but sometimes I feel I'm the one they rely on to schedule meetings, pass out info, etc. This is why I'm reaching out to experts like you and the others providing great advice. Thanks a million!


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## Recon911 (Mar 15, 2013)

Hello recon911,

I truly appreciate your advice. A wealth of suggestions I had not considered. I absolutely agree with your point about NOT calling it 'prepper" and that using the term disaster preparedness would be a better approach. The training classes you suggested are a great source of information and will helps us. I will take your advice. Sincere thanks![/QUOTE]
Aloha,
You are very welcome and I hope my advice was helpful. I am a EmComm Amateur Radio operator with the State of Hawaii E Team and know a little bit about this subject but my area of expertise is in Disaster Preparedness. After experiencing six tsunamis in three years, it's all about getting prepared today and be ready tomorrow.
Try this on for size, turn off your water main and shut off your power breaker for three days. This is where the real lessons begin, can't flush the toilets and you can't turn on the lights, this is where you actually learn what will work and what definitely won't. The only consideration is your refrigerator and any meats in the freezer but you can turn all the breakers off but that circuit. 
Another word of advice is that there is no problems, only solutions. That is the power of positive thinking and thinking like a soldier is also helpful and very useful. Also, one of free things in life is a FCC license for Amateur Radio and good for ten years. Get that one now before O-Bum-a starts to charge a fortune for that, he seems bent on taxing everything else. If not for that reason, do it for yourself, you'll be very happy you did.
The biggest mistake when it comes to Disaster Preparedness is not having at least five months worth of food on hand & at least one month's worth of water, If you look at our governments response to disasters since Katrina, don't expect any help to arrive for at least a month. If it arrives sooner, great! If not, I'm not going to sit here and say that I told you so. You can feed a family of four with one can of SPAM or canned Ham a day. Do the math, $2 buck a can times 150 days, well worth the piece of mind.
Invest $60 bucks a month to your cause, times each member with different lists of items, just imagine where you'd be after a year...


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## Orly51 (Jan 17, 2013)

Recon911 said:


> Hello recon911,
> 
> I truly appreciate your advice. A wealth of suggestions I had not considered. I absolutely agree with your point about NOT calling it 'prepper" and that using the term disaster preparedness would be a better approach. The training classes you suggested are a great source of information and will helps us. I will take your advice. Sincere thanks!


Aloha,
You are very welcome and I hope my advice was helpful. I am a EmComm Amateur Radio operator with the State of Hawaii E Team and know a little bit about this subject but my area of expertise is in Disaster Preparedness. After experiencing six tsunamis in three years, it's all about getting prepared today and be ready tomorrow.
Try this on for size, turn off your water main and shut off your power breaker for three days. This is where the real lessons begin, can't flush the toilets and you can't turn on the lights, this is where you actually learn what will work and what definitely won't. The only consideration is your refrigerator and any meats in the freezer but you can turn all the breakers off but that circuit.
Another word of advice is that there is no problems, only solutions. That is the power of positive thinking and thinking like a soldier is also helpful and very useful. Also, one of free things in life is a FCC license for Amateur Radio and good for ten years. Get that one now before O-Bum-a starts to charge a fortune for that, he seems bent on taxing everything else. If not for that reason, do it for yourself, you'll be very happy you did.
The biggest mistake when it comes to Disaster Preparedness is not having at least five months worth of food on hand & at least one month's worth of water, If you look at our governments response to disasters since Katrina, don't expect any help to arrive for at least a month. If it arrives sooner, great! If not, I'm not going to sit here and say that I told you so. You can feed a family of four with one can of SPAM or canned Ham a day. Do the math, $2 buck a can times 150 days, well worth the piece of mind.
Invest $60 bucks a month to your cause, times each member with different lists of items, just imagine where you'd be after a year...[/QUOTE]

You are absolutely correct. And your advice is going to help me (us) greatly. Ive been preparing for the worse and hoping for the best for just over a year now and its been great. Been storing food, water and other readiness items. Just recently started building a community of like minded people after reading on the topic in a modern survival blog. Most of us have our own ready bag (BOB) and are helping the other put their own bag together.

I always tell my kids and co-workers 'talk to me about solutions, never problems" every problem has a solution. I'm going to try your power down idea one day to see how we do without power and water for a few days. That sounds like a great drill. We want to be self sufficient and NOT have to rely on the government for anything. Thanks again for you advice and follow up comments. Stay safe.


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## seanallen (Nov 13, 2012)

Recon911 said:


> To Orly51,
> As in any group or team, you need to determine what everyone's interests are and what each member is willing to contribute to the group and cause. Keep your goals realistic and find ways to keep everyone's interest. I would suggest that you start calling it a disaster preparedness group or team before you start calling yourselves Preppers and I will explain why. If your first approach is for disaster preparedness, then everyone will start with educational aspect of what you are trying to accomplish first and everyone will feel that they have something to contribute equally.
> Once everyone has had time to get to know each other, it will be easier to determine everyone's strength and interests, then you can explore from there. Then it's time to start organizing your group from that point and begin to move forward. To add strength to your group and to show how serious you, start planning the activities of your group in realistic steps. May I suggest that your group learn all that it can by taking the free FEMA classes that are now being offered within your community and courses that are offered online. This makes for a good starting point in the educational process. Next, start equipping yourselves for free by signing up for the free C.E.R.T training classes in your area. You might have to check with your local Fire Department or your local Department of Emergency Management office. At the completion of this class, you obtain a green backpack that has two First Aid kits, one for you & one for the walking wounded. Most kits come with a helmet,gloves,googles, E-tool, flashlight, a headlamp and many other goodies. The other positive benefit you will get from this CERT Training is meeting other like-minded individuals like yourselves to team up with locally. This will make your group stronger because each new person has different assets and skill sets to add to the group.
> There is a lot more that I could add to this thread but let's take this step by step. I hope this gives you some ideas and direction to start off with and as you and your team get more involved in trying to make a big difference to your community and as more people learn about your group, many doors will begin to open and some of that could involve ways to help fund your group.
> I hope this was helpful and I will try to follow this thread to see your response and to determine if this is what you are looking for and good luck!


Yeah. Right. Tried to get involved in the CERT program. The guy running the show here in Mobile is too busy to return calls or emails. Ive asked several ppl that would know but none of them have heard about it. Finally got fed up with it and called the regional guy but still no luck. Smh.... Am i approaching this the wrong way? Is there an unwritten rule that you have to be a firefighter or EMT? Politically connected? Bribe your way in? I dunno. This is discouraging. If these ppl are gonna act so irresponsible about a citizens interest, why bother even inviting us in the first place?


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## northstarprepper (Mar 19, 2013)

Hi,
I am new here, but just wanted to let you know that you can start the CERT process by doing the on-line classes on the FEMA website. I just started doing them tonight myself. I understand your frustration about finding a place to attend the actual CERT classes. I am having the same issue here in Minnesota. I have contacted my church in an attempt to enlist them in starting a local group (large church in a large suburban city). Still waiting to hear back from them myself. Best of luck with your search. Perhaps you can start. Local group yourself. Never give up.


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## machinist (Jul 4, 2012)

"Intentional Communities" of many sorts have a REALLY BAD track record for enduring. People gravitate naturally to where THEY want to be, and are stubbornly resistant to being lured to someone else's idea of a good place and style of life. 

Why not take the easy way to this? Find a community that suits you and your lifestyle. Move there and become a working part of that community. Meet everyone you can and learn who you can depend on for what. Figure out what you can contribute in the way of talent to this neighborhood and do so. Diversity is important to make a community function, and it occurs naturally. Worked for us. 

But, then, we are independent sorts, and don't care for "joining" anything. Never have, never will. I think you will find that the best people for what you have in mind are also very independent. Cooperation with neighbors and friends is one thing, but having your entire life dictated by somebody else is not my idea of a good time. YMMV, but I doubt it.


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