Survival Group – How to Evaluate Potential Members

Have you been for a job interview lately, or maybe you’ve conducted a job interview.  If you are conducting the interview, you compare what you are needing in an employee with the skill set of the person sitting across the table from you.  You have to evaluate your needs and decide if they have the skill sets to meet those needs.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do that when we want to put together a survival group?

Who Is Your Survival Group?

I’m going to go back to last week’s article and reiterate that your survival group will be the people who congregate at your house and your surrounding neighbors.

I found out that even someone who is close to our family recently said that if the S really does HTF, that what’s going to save you is what is in your bug out bag.  Wow.  I’m not saying that situation will NEVER be the case, but if it is ever true, those times will be few and far between compared to sheltering in place.

Where is Your Best Chance for Survival?

But in reality, where do we have the best chance of survival?  Is our best chance out in the middle of the woods with everyone else who has that mindset along with their spouses and children.  Some ladies may be breastfeeding?  Little ones will be hot, cold, or freezing depending on the season.  Can you imagine living this last winter with its polar vortex temperatures outside with your family?

You will be calling undue attention to yourself by living in the outdoors.  Babies will cry because that’s what babies will do.  Children will whine because that’s what young children do.  Older children may get carried away because that is, in many cases just part of their nature.  If you have no walls to buffer the sound, you are going to put your family in much more danger than if you bug-in.

What Swayed My Opinion

I have not come to this conclusion because I have expertise in this area.  I do a LOT of reading and research both before and during the articles I write.  I’ve been following Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper for quite a while.  She lived off the grid in Canada for awhile.  She moved to an isolated farm in California for a while.  Even when she lived there during a time when rule of law was very much in place, she and her daughter were accosted by a group of men who knew their farm was isolated and saw that there was only two women there.  She understands the difficulties and the benefits living off-grid and living in an isolated location.

Daisy used to teach preparedness classes with another big name prepper.  While these two ladies were organizing these classes, they found and hired a Balkan war survivor named Selco to teach certain sections of their class.  It was through Daisy’s time talking with Selco – who had lived through a true SHTF situation – that she realized that the best way to live through a prolonged event is by living in community with those around you.

Her Best Chance for Survival

So this mom of two, picked up and moved across the country so her daughter could attend her college and mom could be nearby.  When she did, she took the advice that she learned from Selco and moved into the suburbs.  She’s lived in the sticks in Canada and on a rather isolated farm in California, and this well-known prepper now chooses to live in the suburbs surrounded by people because she too believes that this will give herself and her family their best chances of survival.

I would highly suggest that you check out Selco’s posts on The Organic Prepper website if you want more proof that the way to survive during a long-term disruption is to live in community with those around you.

So How Do You Evaluate Survival Group Members?

If we believe what Selco is teaching because he lived through it, and we adapt our mindset to embrace the fact that our neighbors around us will be our group – then why do we even need to evaluate them?  The best way for YOU to be prepared in a SHTF situation is know what you’re dealing with.  What are the benefits and liabilities of the people around you and how can you work together for the good of everyone around you?  These are things you need to consider.

1.)  Who are your neighbors?

When we moved into our current house, we put a white board up behind our door.  On the bottom left corner of the white board, we drew a type of map of the houses on our street and as we met people, we put names on the map.  We’re still getting to know our neighbors and I can honestly say that I haven’t even seen people at two of the houses on our street yet.  So we don’t have names for them.  But start with just getting people’s names and then as you see them, call out to them by name.  Wave to them when you’re driving by.  Start developing those relationships now.

2.)  What are the skillsets that your survival group members have?

In the year that we’ve lived at this location, we’ve discovered that we have a cardiac nurse living on one side of us and a home-brew winemaker on the other side of us.  Across from us, we have a handyman. All of those skill sets will have a real benefit if things deteriorate around here.  We haven’t gotten to know our other neighbors well enough yet to know exactly what their skill sets are, but as we go into outdoor season again, we’ll renew our efforts as we see people outside.

I’m so thankful that we’ve already gotten to know our neighbors across the street enough that she’s on my Facebook messenger and we have each other’s phone numbers.  I was out one day when my kids were at home.  One of my older teenagers called me and tried to tell me someone was tampering with our house, but the line cut off.  I tried calling my kids back, but the call wouldn’t go through.  After 3-4 attempts of it not going through, I called my neighbor who informed me that the electric company was doing some work on our electric meter.  Our home phone requires electricity to work, so that’s why I couldn’t get through.  She told me she’d keep an eye out while they were there.  Having someone on your side like that is priceless now.  Imagine what it will be like if life really gets hard.

3.)  What tools do people in the survival group have?

And I don’t just mean, someone has a skill saw and someone else has a drill press.  Tools are much more than what most men consider when they hear the word tools.  Do you know someone who has a treadle sewing machine?  Do you know that someone has a solar oven?  Does someone have an over-abundance of Bic lighters?  Being part of a community will be give and take, but if you know that other people have items that you may benefit from, you also need to have something that you have to offer to them.

4.) What do you have that other people need/want?

Do you know the needs of the people around you?  Are they elderly and they may need physical help in exchange for something they have that you might need?  Do you know people who have celiac disease and they don’t stockpile food?  Do you have a gluten-free stash that you can trade for something you need?  Get to know your specific neighbors and what they need so you can help meet those needs as a part of a mutually beneficial deal.

5.)  Who are going to be your problem children?

And I’m not talking about the children who actually reside at your house.  I’m talking about the person down the road who has a no trespassing sign up in their window or at the edge of their property.  We have a house that not only has a no soliciting sign, but has put up signs on their mailbox because a dog owner apparently didn’t clean up their animal’s mess once.  I’m not saying the dog’s walker shouldn’t have taken care of the mess.

What I am saying is when the person who owns the house posts a profanity-laced rant on their mailbox in a plastic sheet protector, you know that’s going to be a person who will probably cause trouble if the dog’s mess not only lays at the end of his driveway but also hits the fan.  See if you can create a plan to either avoid these people or to find a way to ingratiate yourselves to them so they are less of an issue.

What About You?

Are you still hesitant to believe that these people located around you will probably be your survival group in one way or another?  Do you have other ideas of how to evaluate your neighbors for each – their benefits, their detriments, their skills, and their needs?  I’d love to hear.  Leave a comment below so that we can all become better prepared.

Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome

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