Exercise good judgment, choose your group with care, and you could find that there is indeed safety in numbers.
Safety is always going to be a primary concern if you are a prepper. It’s not only greater safety that a cohesive and well-led group can offer but also the advice, knowledge, experience, and camaraderie that makes all the difference when you are struggling to cope with the fallout from some natural or manmade disaster or emergency.
Do you need to start a group or join one?
To ensure that the benefits will outweigh any potential setbacks, therefore, what are your options for finding that cohesive and well-led group? In essence, there are two:
- either you start a group that conforms to your particular values, aims, and goals; or
- you join one that is already in existence.
Either way, the keys to keep firmly in mind are your search not just for like-minded people, argues the Survivalist Prepper, but also groups that are well organised, clearly put the safety and security of members first and foremost, and have at their helm competent, determined, strong and stable leadership.
How to find people
Whether you are starting a group from scratch or looking to join an existing gathering, the ideal number for a prepping group is between four and seven people (adults), suggested the Primal Survivor in a blog posted on the 30th of September 2020.
Individual members of the group need to be mentally and physically fit and tough, with each one contributing a skill set that’s going to be valuable if the worst comes to the worst – knowledge of the local terrain, for example, foraging specialists, or those with particular skills in making short- and longer-term shelters.
How to select people for your group?
Based on our model of four to seven people, you are looking at a relatively small group. Even though there are going to be relatively few of you, therefore, aim for a range of different skill sets. You probably don’t want to duplicate talents and energies by having half a dozen individuals who all claim to be fantastic at making shelters.
The glue that holds every member of the group together is mutual trust.
It is difficult to emphasise that essential quality enough – your prepping group will stand or fall solely on the strength of the bonds of trust holding everyone together.
Trust will be the determining factor when it comes to choosing members for your group – and knowing just where to begin your search.
Perhaps one of the most natural places to start are your own family members. These are among the people you are most likely to know well in your life, have known from the earliest age, and feel the closest connection to. But exercise care, because some of those relationships can be hiding old scores that are waiting to be settled – and the last thing you’ll want is to import those tensions into any prepping group.
Long-term friendships are often founded on the mutual confidence, respect, and trust you will be looking for in prepper group membership. So, consider whether there are especially close friends with whom you will be prepared to share every challenge in the face of adversity.
There’s probably no need to add the bottom line to all of this – don’t expect to join forces with complete strangers if you are looking for a viable group of like-minded preppers.
What is the goal of your group?
During the selection process, you are almost certain to come up against the question of what it is all for – what is the purpose, or what are the aims and goals of your prepper group?
This is where some of the organisational strengths of your group might come in. In prepping – as with just about anything – if you don’t know where you’re going, any bus will take you there. In matters of life and death, that is clearly not good enough, so you need to have a plan. And any plan worth its salt will be one that is written down, read, and understood by every member of the group, and reviewed, adapted, and amended in the light of the realities that are experienced by the group
Develop your skills
However carefully chosen its membership, no prepper group will work to its best if just left to its own devices – it takes work and nurturing towards that state where it will be ready to face up to the challenges arising from any natural or manmade disaster crisis.
As the Off-Grid Web suggests, therefore, be prepared for regular work-oriented meetings of your prepper group.
So that everyone knows when and where those meetings are likely to come around, try to keep to a regular schedule – say, once a month – with plenty of advance notice about the location of the next meeting. These meetings are where the relationships of trust among members can be honed, plans formulated, reviewed, and amended, and future activities debated and decided.
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