# Who to include in group.



## RoadRash (Sep 29, 2010)

I have always belived safety in numbers. 
How are people on this forum choosing to make up there group?
My fear is WTSHTF and people know I am stocked and prepared they will come knocking at my door. Laugh at me now, but want me to bail ur A$$ out when the time comes I think not? I am keeping a very low profile among friends and family do not want many to know what I have stocked up on. how far apart is your circle? I have seen numbers that say 9 people how to choose? 
This all new to me and I am trying to become as prepared as quickly as possible but hard to do on own due to $$$$.
All and any input is greatly appreciated.
Thanks RoadRash


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## SurviveNthrive (May 20, 2010)

They won't know to come knocking at your door, just as they won't laugh at you now, if you follow the critical step of not letting people in your proximity know what you're doing.

Preppers who share what they're doing with neighbors have a special name-RESOURCE.


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## RoadRash (Sep 29, 2010)

Close friends an family not my neighbours.
I am not letting anyone know what I have on hand.
As of right now wife n I only ones who knows what I am stocking.


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## Clarice (Aug 19, 2010)

We are very quite about stocking up. Friends and family know we can alot. But they don't know to what extent we have stocked other supplies. They all believe the world will right itself. Not at all concerned about trouble.


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## SurviveNthrive (May 20, 2010)

Clarice said:


> We are very quite about stocking up. Friends and family know we can alot. But they don't know to what extent we have stocked other supplies. They all believe the world will right itself. Not at all concerned about trouble.


I hope they're right. I just don't bank on it.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

Certain family members know and a couple of "trusted" co-workers know that I am a prepper. Beyond that, members of my offroad and hunting/fishing groups are preppers, but, we are all "independants" with plans for BuggingIn primarily and BuggingOut to one of several BOL's that we have searched-out in the past ...


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

I think a long camping trip with prospective people would go a long way in helping you decide if you want them in your "MAG". What people say is sometime very different than they do


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## PS360 (Sep 10, 2010)

Tell no one except your family, or a friend you know as good as your family. (haven’t found one yet)


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## unclebob (May 14, 2010)

Tirediron said:


> I think a long camping trip with prospective people would go a long way in helping you decide if you want them in your "MAG". What people say is sometime very different than they do


Darn good idea!


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## Desertrat1 (Aug 30, 2010)

The fewer the people that know the better.


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## ShipAhoy (Nov 3, 2008)

Loose lips sink ships...


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## SaskBound (Feb 13, 2010)

I think there is a lot to be said for safety in numbers. Even just managing a garden and / or canning for a family is a full time job, let alone handling livestock, dealing with security, building upkeep, childcare, etc. Large pioneer families seemed to do best, and I personally want a good-sized, tight-knit community around me if things go bad. Hubby and I have thought about this pretty carefully, and have concluded that there are three sort of 'levels' of what folks can / should know about our efforts at preparedness. Of note, however, nobody in our circle (besides each other) knows the true extent of what we have - it seemed silly to broadcast that sort of thing. 

My mother and sister have some idea that we keep a few extra things on hand. My mom keeps a bit extra herself (we once built her a room for her food). She believes in planning ahead, and is living in the country already, with plans to get some chickens and maybe a milk cow. My sister thinks we're slightly nuts, but is indulgent about it, and smart (calculating) enough to keep her mouth shut and get to where we are with no extras in tow, should things go ugly. She is trained in a medical field, and an asset even if she shows up with no preps.

It's hubby's family I worry about. They are well meaning, hard working, God fearing types, who trust that mana will fall from heaven, should it come to that. And there are lots of them. Having said that, most of them would be assets, as they have lived on the farm, do plenty of hunting / canning / cooking, are very handy, or are just plain hardworking folks. We are slowly trying to bring them around, and hinting around the edges of the whole preparedness idea. We hope to either get a 'hit' (I suspect that a couple of them might have preparedness leanings), or have them start to wake up and at least put a plan in place for basic (probable) issues like unemployment or tornadoes or blizzards. Failing that, once we get to our homestead, we will just put some by for the whole crew, and invite them after things start looking bad.

We also have a couple of friends who do not know of our preps, who we do not discuss 'this stuff' with, but who will be invited to our BOL should the S hit the F. They are also assets, with gun collections, reloading equipment, organic gardening backgrounds, medical skills, etc. 

All in all, we are figuring on about 25 people showing up at our place if things go ugly. The only thing we're really hung up on is where to put them all...


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## pdx210 (Jan 8, 2010)

mum's the word!


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## wildman800 (Oct 17, 2008)

I have no planned group. Groups, for whatever purposes, will draw attention from Big Brother. 

I believe that when TSHTF, we will deal with those who happen to be around us, as in neighbors and house guests that happened to be in the are at the time that the SHTF.

Then some friends and neighbors will arrive, invited or not, and we will have to either integrate those people within the local group, or turn them away.

I do not intend to turn anyone away that is willing to work and contribute. Everybody has talents and there are many tasks that do not require a specific talent but a willingness to perform the assigned duty.

The local Neighborhood Watch is the framework that neighborhoods will use to initially organize a common defense, foraging parties, scouting parties, etc.

This is merely another opinion which happens to be mine.


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## SurviveNthrive (May 20, 2010)

There's a cold, hard pragmatism to my thinking...

I want to help folks now. I'd hate to see anyone suffer, but I think back to a discussion I had with a survivor of a famine in China. He talked about being a child, walking past people dying in the streets, going home to their safe, stout home where they'd stored rice and other staples, anticipating a shortage. Before they shut their home's gates he even saw some people, dying, who had strips of flesh cut from the back of their legs by other, healtier and savagely hungry people. He'd thought his father and the other adult male relatives cruel for not helping others...but there he was, years later, telling me about the story, and those people who didn't prepare, weren't. They couldn't complain about the injustice of their situation. They couldn't complain that those with foresight didn't share, because they were DEAD and their family members they failed were DEAD.

Just about all of us have the opportunity to buy enough food to help us through a famine...just a big of grains, some beans, etc., might be the edge, might buy some time. We all have that opportunity and the knowledge that this can be done is available to everyone, no matter how out of touch or ignorant. Any of us, knowing it's a possibility, can put away a pound of beans, a few packages of pasta, a can of tuna, and a small bag of rice a payday or benefits day. Is it likely to happen? No, no big famiine is expected, but I put on my seat belt every time I get in the car although I don't anticipate an accident because it's stupid not to take a little percaution against a potentially huge negative event. 

It's a choice.

If you plan on a big group, make sure they made the same choice because it's going to be an SOB trying to resource all those people who bring mouths, opinions, and nothing else to the table.


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

Group dynamics are weird, especially in a survival situation, The signs are all around that things are shakey but some people won't do anything to get ready
these same people are usually the first to complain. 
In a post SHTF situation one is going to have to make some very hard decisions, like can you let the 8 year old next door starve because her parents are to "smart" to prep even a bit??
It would be nice to have a MAG but it could be more trouble than it is worth.


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## juplanter (Oct 8, 2010)

I have a similar belief, to me it is almost like building an ARK. There will always have to be some form of association between people, we are and always have been social animals. I think that it is necessary to determine what skiil sets are most desireable to create a community. Do we all want to stumble back to the dark ages?


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## thunderdan19 (Oct 12, 2010)

Mostly, just my family, but I have a friend that is a paramedic, whose wife is a trauma tech, who I've told are welcome to join us if TSHTF. I told them mostly because they are practically family and live much closer to the bullseye than we do, but also because I know they would be excellent for both security and medicine. They would have some distance to cover to get here, but if they made it, they would be invaluable for sure, and worth any food supplies they would need.

I also broached the topic very shallowly with another couple friends, but they will have their own families to tend to, so I don't really expect them to join us. I have a co-worker or two that are single that would be great to add for security, but I haven't gotten very deep with them on it either.


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## SurviveNthrive (May 20, 2010)

We can adapt and harden...especially when those who we'd normally have sympathy with adapt and harden as well.

Many years ago, when in Turkey, we spent some time on a tour. We'd a guide who was a big, loud guy, sort of like the man who bellows enthusiastically "Indie!" when he sees Harrison Ford's character in that series.

Well he carried a switch. When we stopped in places begger/thief children would swarm forward. They had mean, angry faces, and the glares they had toward me and the few other children I can remember to this day. He took the swatter to them when they got too close. One woman got angry at him and ignored him when he warned her to stay close and not give them anything. This big Euro woman thought she knew better. They swarmed her and it looked like a cow being attacked by piranas. He whipped those children away and she was encouraging, telling him to use his pistol. She went from bleeding heart to vicious in seconds.

Saw the same in Africa.

Imagine the street children of Calcutta, Tanzania, Moscow, San Paulo, and Rome and you'd have a small inkling of what it'd be like in a famine...those children, tragically affected, forever changed, act like monsters.

On the flip side, remember the swollen bellied children of Biafra when they got starved by Nigerians. Consider those afflicted by famine in Ethiopia. Helpless, not attacking, slowly dying and unable to harm anyone, but beyond help even if you gave them food.

Terrible...tragic, we'll be facing something in between.


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## Freyadog (Jan 27, 2010)

We live very rural and my dh and I are the only ones that we know of that prepare the way we do. Most around here eat what little they grow in their gardens and can some. However most think that the stores will always be open and have what they need.

We have zipped lips.


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