[Jeffrey]

Hey there Warriors! I thought it would be a great idea to open up a discussion here in the Sanctum where anyone can reach out for questions or comments about this month’s (March 2022) Warrior Workshop on “Survival Teams”. Let’s get this party started and help each other out!

Discussion

[TJ]

Just caught up on the workshop today. I thought your points on risks vs rewards were spot on. Group dynamics can be a big challenge in the best of times. Throw in a little disaster and things can really go off the rails if everyone doesn’t pull together.

My circle could include my in-laws who all live in CA. Not bad people and they have some skills but they often aren’t prepared for what they need to cook for diner every night let alone an unexpected emergency. There was a fire burning towards my wife’s parents house for two days and they took no action until 2am when the cops knocked on the door and told them they had to leave right then. So guess the chances of them actually making it here in an emergency are pretty low.

[Jeffrey]

Good insights TJ. Curious to see how your diagram looks for this month's Mini-Mission! 🙂

[TJ]

Just saw the mini mission, looking forward to going through the exorcises!

I wonder what you think the odds are of a neighborhood and/or town coming together after a crises like in the book 1 Second After? I live in a rural neighborhood of 1 acre lots in a very small rural town surrounded by forest. Lots of independent self sufficient folks here. Lots of hunters and some former military and LEO folks. Have several nurses in my neighborhood as well. I have danced around the subject with several neighbors without revealing my levels of preparedness and know there are more than a few folks at least as prepared for emergencies as I am. If the majority of folks pulled together I think we would be in better shape than most. But trying to organize that before an event would be a risky and incredibly daunting task. Think we would need to get a few key folks lined up before an event and have them encourage the herd to move in a cooperative direction after something started.

[Buck]

Honestly, I wonder about the “community” aspect of things, especially since most of us live in neighborhoods where we don't know each other. I'd like to think in an emergency that going door to door, talking to people, might help… but then I think about the posts I see on Nextdoor and I'm not encouraged.

[TJ]

I am fortunate in that I know most of the people in my little corner of the neighborhood and between myself and my nearby neighbors we collectively know a significant number of the people in our town.

I can’t afford a bunker or a bug out property. So my options are finding someone who does who will let my family join them, riding out an emergency by working together with the neighbors to keep our homes safe from everyone bugging out from the cities, or gathering a small group of people with the limited supplies our vehicles can carry and trying to find a quiet place in the forest even more remote than our little town. All those approaches have their potential pluses, minuses and no guarantees of success.

[David]

I don't think waiting until a situation happens is the right time to go door-to-door. If you live in a more urban area, perhaps you could introduce the idea of putting together a CERT team at an HOA or other local community meeting. Biggest benefit is that those who wouldn't contribute to post-event effort anyway won't show up for the CERT training in the first place. Those who do will rapidly either prove themselves to be a reliable community resource, or will quickly fade off your “candidate roster”. If you're in the County, I'd suggest starting with the nearest Fire Department or Emergency Management office, they can often be a great facilitator of community involvement efforts towards general emergency preparedness.

[David]

I had problems inputting my security diagram entry because system disallows .pdf format that my scanner wants to put images into. If your phone is capable, take a picture of your submission, EMAIL it to yourself, save the photo to desktop or drive location you can find, and then upload to WL website from there. Hope this approach will help you if you've also encountered problems. If you've got an easier solution, sound off – “We're all in this together”!

[Jeffrey]

Hi David! I just added some additional notes for the Mini-Mission… that task feature is meant for “media only” uploads such as images from a smart phone so I made that clearer above the mission. Sorry for the confusion.

[Author]

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