Forming a Survival group

Would it be counterproductive to make a pact with a group of people for when a traumatic event turns up? I was wondering if joining with like minded people will better your chances at survival or dampen them. Can you each have specific things that you specialize to ensure survival of the group? Some of my friends are closer than family to me, I think that we would work better as a cohesive unit in the likelihood that an urban disaster strikes.

 

You need to take into account people's self interests too. Post-apocalypse it will be every person + their family for themselves. Trust anyone else even if you were good friends before the event and you might be betrayed. I think that's the reason why you shouldn't do any group-prepping. Disasters change people. Trust yourself and your family. No one else. But that's just an opinion based on my experiences.

 

I'm agreeing with the above. Though I don't know anyone else who's preparing even in the slightest of ways bar myself, so I guess my hoarding and mental planning and beginning is more on behalf of my family so I can protect us later and I hope to get as many of us together at such a time as I can.

Don't trust people you're not related to. Even be wary of some that you are.
As John Snort has said, it's everyone for him or herself in a disaster situation...Try and involve your family, and if they won't, at least try and plan how to protect them as I am?

 

I think joining a group can only give you benefits in surviving. Although, you should choose carefully with the people you form groups with. They need to be mentally prepared, and not enter in a breakdown in case of a disaster.You need to make sure they are loyal to the group, and won't betray you.

 

I don't think it'd be counterproductive. I think we all do this in our daily lives. Like, if we notice one of our friends is always prepared for weather changes or they have a first aid kit on them at all times. We subconsciously make a mental note of these things so if things ever do go south, you know who to run to for help. I think we're better off joining a group than going it alone. You can bounce ideas off one another and they can have your back when someone happens that you on your own would have never thought of being prepared for.

It would be smart for each person to specialize in different things. For example, one person is good at starting a fire. Another person has a great green thumb. Another person has great leadership skills and knows hows to boost morale during the traumatic event.

 

I know approx. fourty survivalists, about half are wankers, a quarter are so self centric as to be dangerous and
the remaining quarter are part of a loose coalition!
We each look after our own but have means to come together as a non fixed group for security reasons!
So depending on the event we can do our own thing or communicate and meet at a central location!

 

I have a couple of close friends who are preppers and very squared away, they are not posers or wanna be's. People I would trust with my life. All others, I'll keep to myself.

 

My experience also and I think very few existing groups will survive the transition from pre to post group!
All the people one knows now have hidden agenders! even that one in the mirror! you see but the surface veneer of those people.
During that transition the veneer will change!
Will mister nice guy trusted group member with a secret passion for your mrs decide to act on it? or will he decide that he should be leader?
Many hidden things will surface, some good some not so!
Transition will be interesting for most existing groups.

But not your group of course as you have it all sorted.

 

We can call it a support group - being with people who believe in what you believe in. Let's say you have a team like a posse in your community. When a great calamity strikes, your team can easily sort out everything simply because you are a team. It was experienced by the people of Leyte province when it was hit by a devastating typhoon. To each his own so the populace were at a loss. After 3 days, the place was still chaotic because there was no leader, no course of action and the people don't know what to do. But when Japan's nuclear plant had a leak, everything was set in order after 1 day. And that's because of the people's vigilance and team work.

 

Greater numbers can by all means increase increase the odds of survival. Like minded well prepared groups can leverage themselves against adverse scenarios. Increased security, hunting, foraging , construction. The list is endless.
That said, finding people who you truly trust with your life is no easy task. Never has been. It will.be exponentially more difficult to identify good people post SHTF.

 

I searched our local are and came up empty. We may start a historical living learning group of our own.

 

How large or small should a survival group be? Thank you.

 

The group that will be best for you is going to be one made up of people that you care about and that care about you. I have friends that I know that I can depend on. I also have friends that are not the sort that I would want around in a bad situation. What you need to do is start feeling out the friends that you have that you think would be good in hard times and open a dialog about what they might do if something bad happened.

As this sort of thing grows you can make general plans to gather someplace if "something" happens. You can't really make any hard core plans in advance for a lot of reasons. For one thing we don't don't know what might happen or WHEN it might happen. Even your closest family may disappear during a disaster never to be heard from again. This is a sort of don't put all your eggs in one basket sort of things. I could end up with as many as 20 people here or as few as just my wife and immediadt family. I have plans for all eventualities including the survival of them if I'm not here.

For example, my wife is going to a seminar in Austen in a couple of days. She will be there for two days and one night. This is several hundred miles away. If we were to get hit by an EMP that wiped out power and all the cars I don't know if she would ever get home. The same could happen to any of the people I hope to gather if times get bad. It could be me that was gone and too far to make it home.

One of the reasons that I chose to live in a small town instead of a suburb has to do with a certain sort of connection that people have when they live in little towns that just doesn't happen in a subdivision. The little town that I chose has a population of 500. It has a good home town owned country grocery store and butcher shop, three restaurants, three convenience stores, a small general store, a doctor, a bank and a couple of churches. It is a self-contained freestanding community only lacking a pharmacy from being totally self sufficient. In the event of a problem we are 15 miles from a somewhat larger town of 35,000. That is far enough that if people are walking they won't bother us but close enough that you can alk there. We will be forced to turn our efforts in.

People that chose to live like this are not your urban types. We don't want or need cops to protect us. We don't tend to eat as much fast food and don't even have any sort of delivery type things. We nearly all have guns and most hunt. We don't like being crowded and most of the lots here are at least an acre except for a tiny part over near the tracks that is the old part of the little town that was established in 1872. We don't and won't have a problem with gangs or junkies and our criminal element is rather small and won't last long if they don't act right.

What I'm trying to say in my usual long winded way is that you need to make your "group" a flexable thing made up of loosely connected people with the right stuff to actually survive. One of the hardest things we will all face is dealing with the people that we know that while they are nice people they will be less than useless in a apocalyptic world. Don't make the mistake of forming a group made up of people based of who you like or who is related to you. The real survivors unfortunately may not be the sweetest, kindest, most likable folks.