Your 'Tribe' ??

[Hook686]

One of the biggest things I got off of the Bosnia posting during their most recent civil war was the need for a 'Tribe'. It seemed one man/family operations did not survive long. The posts seem to favor family groups gathering in a residential block area with enough people to provide 24/7 security guards at each end, scavagener/bartering teams for night time operations (daytime resulted in sniper casualties), teams to keep territory mended and secure (often ment making it look well looted and even a few dead bodies ... anything that was clean and looked healthy was an immedicate target), folks to prepare food, mend items, prep trade goods, a medical expert, care for children, were not unimportant. Trade goods seemed very important, so ammunition, alcohol, being able to refill a Bic lighter (fuel and flint), weapons, food items were very high on the barter list.

Do you have any plans to join up with a team (neighbors, or family) if a great SHTF scenario develops ? If so what do you plan, and what does it depend upon most ?

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[Joe Link]

I've thought about this quite a bit, and that Bosnia posting certainly expanded my number of considerations. It makes sense to organize with a larger group of people, though it's scary to think about how people can and do change during extreme circumstances. I have a good bit of family in the area but we are not coordinated or prepared at all.

 

[MadDuner]

I just visited my Tribe last week. They are in a different state. They are too far to reach in any SHTF scenario. I'd be stuck in an indefensible position here without any sort of team or tribe.....

 

[billdeserthill]

Last time I heard anything about my 'tribe' it turned out to be a cheap jewish guy trying to get a better deal--
He noticed I was wearing my Star of David, and said "so this is the best you can do for your tribe?"
I promptly ordered him to "get the h ell out of my shop" and I haven't had any 'tribe' problems since

 

[AMproducts]

So I really haven't been around much lately, mostly because I've been really busy with a lot of things in meat space.

I'm still working out some SOPs I want to share, but I'm still in very preliminary stages, but maybe having something of a Q and A with y'all might help me solve my writer's block.

First, Since about 2009 (maybe dunno exactly) I've been doing a taco tuesday event with friends. It started after I got my HAM license, I ran into a couple of other local hams out getting dinner one night. Some time later, the restaurant at the local airport (which is where the local ham club did their testing) was doing a taco-tuesday, and would be open late (normally they close at like 2-3pm). So me and a few ham friends went on opening night, and had a great time, I said "hey, you wanna keep doing this?" and they were all in the affirmative.

Well, here we are 8 years later, and we still meet every week, our list of regular attendees has grown up to about 15, with a solid 8-10 people showing up every week.

That said, we've had a bit of tragedy this year, and one of our guys was killed in a car accident about a month ago. About two weeks before that, I made a pitch that we should organize ourselves as a social club, or as a fraternal order. (501C7 or 501c10 respectively) I got a little bit of pushback, some of the older members (I mean age wise, not necessarily in seniority in the group) argued "but things are great the way they are". There are two fundamental reasons why I want to do this:

1) Infrastructure - Websites, mailing lists, web-boards, all cost money, they cost money to set up, and they cost money to keep running. Even without a physical presence in meat space, a club costs dollars. It would be ideal to have a clubhouse, but that's quite a stretch.

2) Continuity of Operations - This was my main thrust, if we are going to build something, there needs to be organization in place to manage it. If we purchase a repeater, a reloading machine, a gun cleaning kit, it becomes property of the club. There's no "taking your ball and going home" but there's also no "you died suddenly, and now all of your friends are screwed".

The later part of point 2 dovetails with the unfortunate events, this was actually brought up in context of some of the older members, one of whom had a stroke last year, and also runs our mailing list for the moment. What ended up happening was much more tragic. But other than as an object lesson, I don't want to dwell on it.

That said, there are three critical pushes I'm making at the moment:

1) Funding - At the moment, I have already asked if people would be willing to pay dues, the number I had in mind was $200/yr. I got a few No's, and a few Maybe's, however, I realize without showing where the value was, all I would be doing is pushing more people towards No.

2) Activities - This is where I'm trying to demonstrate value. At the moment, I am organizing monthly 3-gun events, I'm largely avoiding the gamer type 3-gun IPSC/IDPA/etc and I'm working on my own ruleset that focuses on reloading, retention, and movement. In reality, it's a 2+1 gun event. The push in the near term, is to organize it as an official event with my current gun club, which does allow match organizers to charge (half goes to the club, other half goes to organizer) as a means of funding further development.

I'm also opening my shop up every weekend (as much as possible anyways) that we can put people to work building targets, working on new things for the shoots, and devising other events and activities in addition to the tuesday meetings. I also have a pretty good production reloading setup at my shop, including a camdex, and multiple dillons. Some of these things I will make club property once the legal organization is there.

3) Infrastructure - I bought a domain, and I'm putting up a website along with a wiki, e-mail list, and some other things (don't worry Joe, I'm not trying to steal your users There is a large amount of technical information my group generates, mostly related to radio systems, however I am very active in terms of camping, hiking, hunting, as well as my own survivalist activities, and I try to put as much of this down in a format that's accessible to my group.

The second part of the infrastructure is a legal framework... incorporation paperwork, a board, tax-exempt status, and all that other fun stuff. This is what insures all of the above will survive after I'm gone. Yes, I realize government paperwork isn't sexy or fun, but at the moment at least, it will allow the organization to build something better, and protect itself in a way it can't at the moment.

What I think would be most excellent, is if all of you followed my example. Start building your own groups, you can use mine as a template. This goes far beyond prepper/survivalism, but is based in one thing that's kinda been stuck in my head over the last few years: Life is about having fun, it's about being with friends, and family, and having good experiences together. The collapse of civilization, if that's what this all runs up towards is kinda secondary if we don't enjoy the good while it's easy to do so.

I guess my real message here is not: be ready for the worst, but be ready for the best. Never miss an opportunity, the future belongs to those who show up.

So here's the challenge. I realize there are a lot of you spread all over the southwest. But I imagine most of you have at least one local friend, if you don't, it's time to make one. Start going to dinner every tuesday, find a local fast-food joint that has good food, doesn't bust your balls about loitering, invite a few friends, have them invite a few friends, without trying you will eventually have a group at least as large as mine.

I highly recommend starting your group from your own group of friends, this natural connection will help greatly. If anyone who reads this is near Azusa, CA, PM me, our tuesday meetings are open to all. Some of the other events we like to get to know you first, this is mostly a safety and liability thing, so don't be offended if you can't use the camdex after showing up once.