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My Husband and I live in a very new neighborhood, most of us on the street have only been here a year or less. One of our neighbors had a block party last weekend and the whole street turned out. Somehow the topic of prepping came up and we discovered that alot of our neighbors are very interested in becoming prepared but don't have a clue where to begin. So we thought we would hold a meeting and maybe start some kind of monthly group to help our community.
Since i'm a stay at home Mom the organizing of the meeting kind of falls on me. What I have in my head is to first have a general meeting discussing the basics and then hold monthly meeting to go into further detail, more specifics. My problem is there is so much information to cover, I don't want to overwhelm these people.
So i'm looking for advice or ideas on what to cover for that first initial meeting.
The first thing to do is decide what you want to do.
Prepping is expensive and time consuming. If you have a set goal of what you are prepping for, you will then be able to make lists of what is currently available, (tools, ground for gardens, water supply,fuel supply, Etc.).
You can find out what skills are available from the people involved, farming, animal husbandry, electrical/plumbing/construction, Medical/first responder/fire fighter, security from active/former military/police.
Take a look at where you are and identify probable threats from severe weather, earthquakes, forest fires etc.
How close are you to population centers? Are there targets in the area that might conceivably be hit by terrorists? Government, nuclear plants, military facilities etc.
What you may want to do is set down with a map of your area and see what is out there.
Once you have identified what you want to prep for, know what skills are available, what resources you have and what are the major threats, then you can start your action plan.
The first step alone may take a few meetings to get everyone on board as you are doing a cooperative prep, but once you have your plan, you can allocate resources and keep the cost lower by reducing redundancy.
You are doing the right thing to think ahead and prepare for your own safety and security. This board has a lot of experienced people that I am sure could be a good resource for your questions.
Guest speakers are always good for neighborhood meetings be it someone who works for your local LE agency to speak about municipal/county preparedness/how to secure homes/neighborhood watch, Red Cross, etc....
Discussing what should be absolutely private with strangers who know where you live is not the way to build security and safety. The OP has completely undermined herself and her family by sharing confidential information.
My advice to the OP is to move where no one knows her and begin again. But this time don't make it a happy neighborhood activity. Make it a means of survival. Neighbors should not know what you're doing, planning, or thinking.
Making local police or government employees of any sort privy to your private affairs is madness. They are not your friends or allies. They want to be your rulers, to take your guns, your gold, and anything else of value.
Loose lips sink ships. This ship is already resting on the bottom.
I'm part of a new group, we meet once a month and follow up inbetween. This is just something like what we did so far..
1st month - Introduced ourself, shared concerns, educated eachother
2nd month - more of that, named our group (not important in ur case)
3rd month - legal stuff, constitution, again not necessary for you
4th month - refined our first big goal, opened bank account and made it nonprofit and tax-deductable (doesn't have to be a traditional bank)
5th - re-delegated responsibility and structure
6tth - put some money where our mouth is and spending lots of time now on the objective toward the bigger goal
So I think our mistake was waiting 6 months to feel real progress... I think its important to keep the interest of everyone and develop action plans early on, the sooner you see progress, the more encouraged and dedicated they will stay. Not everyone has to agree on everything, go at something alone if you're the only one interested, but share it and ask for help.
Discussing what should be absolutely private with strangers who know where you live is not the way to build security and safety. The OP has completely undermined herself and her family by sharing confidential information.
My advice to the OP is to move where no one knows her and begin again. But this time don't make it a happy neighborhood activity. Make it a means of survival. Neighbors should not know what you're doing, planning, or thinking.
Making local police or government employees of any sort privy to your private affairs is madness. They are not your friends or allies. They want to be your rulers, to take your guns, your gold, and anything else of value.
Loose lips sink ships. This ship is already resting on the bottom.
Thanks everyone (well most everyone ) for some great insight so far.
Just to clarify, we are NOT going to be inviting our neighbors into our home and showing off what we have nor our we looking to make this a communal thing, we mearly want to educate them so if and/ or when the time comes we don't have to shoot them.
Thanks Again! Keep the suggestions coming please.
Jenn
You want to teach them efficient ways of self reliance without getting them in your basement to look at your stores, right?
Most Counties have an Emergency Preparedness office. Contact them for speakers to come and teach your group about medical emergencies, what to do if a particular disaster is imminent or in the aftermath, etc. They should have contacts at your local EMS/hospital facilities, local government, and local firefighters, even local businesses like Home Depot or power plants, all of whom are trained to meet and contend with disasters, and some of whom can teach you and even the children what to do. You can learn CPR and basic emergency medical care, and find out what disasters your county has prepared for in their mitigation plans (which are required by Federal law). These could be floods, tornadoes, large brush fires, ice storms, blizzards - whatever is likely to affect your area and reduce your neighbors into government dependents.
I'm with Happy, though - you can get outsiders to join in and prepare themselves, but any happy and wide-eyed admission of what you have is setting yourself up for a fall, especially in a disaster. "Well, y'know, ol' Jen said they had a year's worth of food stored up - let's go over there and see. We're hungry and we know she won't mind sharing!" Some people have different notions of the idea of "share" - which you might find out only when you're lying bleeding to death on the floor of your empty and trashed basement.
actually he isnt being paranoid. nobody outside of our group knows we are preppers and i dont advertise. the last thing you want to do is advertise, because if TSHTF ever does really happen, you will have everyone and their mother on your doorstep looking for a handout because they failed to take the time and stockpile for themselves.
I personally won't let people know I prep unless they're already doing what I'm trying to do. It's a gamble because the people you share information may or may not be nearly as serious as you are, even if they seem to agree. I'd observe someone to see what type they are before saying much on that subject. Even one of my very best friends has very bad habits and I won't share personal info with him, even though he's a dear friend. I'll just try to point him in the right direction and hope he'll be ok.
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What I have in my head is to first have a general meeting discussing the basics and then hold monthly meeting to go into further detail, more specifics. My problem is there is so much information to cover, I don't want to overwhelm these people.
) for some great insight so far.
