I belong to a small group of 5 households separated by as much as 30 miles where we each have our own farm or homestead. Each household has determined that we will each shelter in place rather than bugout to a single BOL during a SHTF event. Can anyone recommend a leadership model that would work for such a group? The gamut ranges from the Big Kanuna to the majority rules model and maybe beyond. We‘re looking for something in between that can help hold us together, give us a little organization, and provide some direction without offending anyone’s sense of autonomy which is pretty strong. Right now, I feel as though we are NOT much stronger together than we would be if we were completely independent.
Any advice from someone who has been in a similar place and found a solution would be appreciated. Thanks.
I have something of the same situation going on, i think in this loose of a situation you just have to understand that each family is going to do what makes sense for their own family first, and help eachother as they can. I would suggest rotating a monthly or quarterly meetup where each farm hosts once in the rotation, and the host decides the goal for the meetup and show what theyve been working on, followed by a hangout to keep cameraderie up. If you can plan it around a large farm project that would be even better because
A help is good 😂
B it gives you a sense of investment/ownership in eachother's success
If you want to get really nailed down on leadership id suggest the host household for that period takes the lead untill the next meetup. Just my 2 cents for what its worth, best of luck
Preach it sister and I would like to add one thing to that. Learn faith. In yourself, the others of the group and in the Most High.
I get a little tired of the 'Lone Wolf, Dead Wolf' philosophy. I have other good, good people I am in touch with frequently. I and they prep as if they are on their own. I prep for myself and for others, even if I don't know who those others will be. Yet, I am a lone wolf in thought and deeds. Being older, what used to take me a day, now takes me a week and a week a month. Everything has to be done with intention to accomplish what needs be done. While I like the idea of a meet-up and idea exchange, it's a more difficult venture for me. It would have to be something that was set apart and for me to fit it into my work load. Animals, garden and wood come first. Do you know the saying "You can't get there from here" ? Truth to that here. Most things are miles and miles away and no straight shots to get there. Excuses? Nah, reasons. What should only take an hour one way, can end up taking two or more. It would have to be done with purpose and a lot of forethought. Rules and regulations are going to change as this all gets more real. What works today may not even work next week. I agree with Bear that finding like minded and people who are similar to your faith are going to be ones who you will interact with smoothly. While I am tolerant of others' ideas and beliefs, are they going to be tolerant of mine? How about when the only fair weather day is one I cannot and will not do any work on? What then? That could cause a lot of hard feelings wouldn't you say? I wish you the best with trying to find a map or operating idea. I just warn you that you would accomplish more with a backyard barbeque where everyone can just plain talk and relax.
Update. I took your advice sort of—backyard barbecue model. Our MAG met at a restaurant with no agenda, ate, and talked. No one single leader rose to the surface, but our nurse member volunteered to bring us up to speed medical-wise. I am thinking that we don’t really need a single leader in non-emergency situations, but want to make sure the retired Marine member will take command if the bullets start flying or if we need to defend ourselves from a mob or gang—not likely unless the country tanks after the election—need to work on the details with him. I’m sure the nurse is capable of taking command during any kind of medical emergency. Very glad she’s on board. For now anyway, letting people’s needs guide us is good enough. If we get the feeling that the country had decided to devour itself, we may need to reassess the leadership idea and get some concrete plans in place.
I like the idea of the “backyard barbecue” leadership model. I’m pushing 70 but still milk a cow, feed all the other animals, plant and maintain a one acre garden, and do all the other things that need doing on 53 acres. Leaves little time for a whole lot else. Just trying to get a group identified where we all have each others’ backs in case of emergency.
I hear you and am not too far behind you in age. Like you, I have the acreage as well to do the things. Lol, funny thing...the head is willing and the hands remember it all, but the body has different ideas doesn't it? It might work for you if you could do it. Animals make it very hard, even though I only have the geese and chickens, the work is still there. As I said, I wish you the best and hope it does work out for you. I imagine, like me, you have a whole bunch of knowledge you've gain over the years. We might not be as fast as we used to was, but some of the stuff we know is priceless because it is practical we've earned.
You know, I learned this the hard way when I lost my father in 2001. Losing him was hard, but the knowledge he had? Devastating! And I was lucky in that I spent a lot of time with him learning and doing. It was the only time in my life that I wished we could download the knowledge base of someone. Since then I've thought about this many an hour. A journal? A recording? Maybe a recording that could be put into a computer and have it transcribed and then printed out. If you could get into the habit of a recording being made as you were doing the work, you could be speaking to what you are doing and also introduce then to the correct vernacular to use when the job got hard. C'mon, lol, we all know there are certain words and phrases that just make the job go quicker. Would it work? It should, only problem would be having it printed, the safest bet, makes for a bulky thing. With some pertinent pictures of parts or whatever, with the written words you would have one hell of an instruction manual. I'd say just do a video, but who's to say it could be used? Might not have any way of play back due to EMP or whatever.
This is one of the biggest crimes done against us. With the manipulation of the jobs and life styles they have robbed the young from the old knowledge. There's no time any longer to work along side someone to learn and frankly, as you said Grey Beard, no desire. I mean really, they have a hand wart they can look everything up on right? So, in the end they will be forced to reinvent the wheel or go into one of the mega cities they are planning. When I think of everything I have learned....how sad, it will be lost as I don't have anyone who gives a sweet whistling.
Not a day goes by that I don’t wish I could ask my Dad how to do something. I’ve got some of his tools and don’t even know what he used them all for. I’m not against progress, just wish I had dragged a bit more of the past along for the ride. Thinking it just might become useful here in the not too distant future.
mixed feelings on this but i lean towards a single person in the leadership role during a bad event group consensus will get you killed during a bad event. now if a MAG wants to go with the group thing during peaceful times go for it it could work....
Wally, this works if you have a group close enough to be able to scramble when it really goes south. Some of us live where that's not going to happen and all we can do, in fact, will be show up for the aftermath most likely. You know the comment "When seconds count, we're minutes away". Yeah well, sometimes it's hours away. In that case, every single person or unit is going to have to be autonomous. You will have to have the knowledge and skills to make it happen. It is a good idea to have a central place to land, if you are able to get there, but that could take a long, long time. In a perfect world, you have a community of some sort that is like minded and can be counted on. Some of us do not and never will. Depending on a Tribe or a MAG is going to get you killed if that's the big plan. That's for the later. Yes a community of like minded is going to be needed, but you have to survive long enough to make it happen. If your whole thing is to get to your group, if it isn't your neighborhood....a second is all it takes to make a bad day even worse. As for the adage about having to sleep, let me say this about that....you never sleep in the same place two nights in a row. With land, you can already have this in place. Trip wires and battery operated sirens and strobe lights are going to be your best friends. Very simple to set up and with a solar battery charger you'd be good for the initial.
Being spread out over a 30 mile radius on the plains poses some logistical issues that geographically more condensed groups don’t seem to have. Walking time between the two furthest groups is almost 9 hours in good conditions; in a blizzard, impossible. So, in a sense, each homestead needs to operate autonomously from the others, at least when emergency help is needed. The above comments have me thinking that maybe our training model needs to become, during safe times, how to best make each of our homesteads as self-reliant as possible so that when things go south, we’ll each be prepared. Even by automobile it takes us a minimum of 25 minutes to get from one homestead to the others, far too long to rely on help if lead is flying. Meeting together takes more effort, I think, than it does for more condensed groups so we need to make together time count. All of this still begs the question of what’s the best leadership model for a geographically dispersed group. Still thinking.
Pat, make a list of each person and their strong points. Then go from there. That's why I said a cook-out is perfect for assessing each person's personality. There are going to be a lot of folks that will think they were born to lead. And, hey, maybe they can. The next thought is where are they going to lead? I have learned to watch the quiet and reticent ones. The ones who don't volunteer usually don't for a reason. They know just how much of a pain in the butt being the leader is, because they've done it. Engage them in conversation and see. As for having a single person in charge...not cool. Then you could find yourselves in a peeing contest down the line. Bear had some excellent thoughts on this, forming a group/class of basically warriors/headsmen who would be the ones responsible for making the rules during engagement times and danger. One person will end up being the go to because the rest will figure it out as they work together. The size of the group is going to be a very important part of this. Too small and exhaustion is a real issue, too large and you have too much armchair speak and the afore mentioned peeing contests. I will tell you something I have always said...When you come down my driveway, you have left Democracy behind. You have entered a dictatorship and you're not the head of it. [Yeah, I've know some real interesting people who were in desperate need of that little piece of wisdom.]
I'm in Maine and it's a spread out logistical mess for this kind of thing. And you are most correct! During the winter....ain't happening or if it has to, start early and stay late because it's not going to be easy at all. Snowmobile in the winter, maybe, but a lot of the trails go through peoples' private property and you could be picked off easily. I see no easy answer for this except being of lone wolf mentality.
The last problem/solution I see that needs to be thought of is where you want to be. Are you willing to just up and leave? Are the rest of your people? What is their situation? Who has the best placement for survival? With 53 acres of land, you could fit a bunch of people there if you have the resources to build other shelters as well as plan bigger areas for food. How about water? Could you supply 100 people with the water available on property as well as the fields and gardens? Would you be able to dig more wells and have more water that way? What kind of equipment do you have for moving dirt? To my mind, berm housing, greenhouse and even barns would be better, more into the ground than above. In an open area, not too many places to hide, unless you do concealment with berms. Also it would be a lot easier to heat if wood is scarce. Look, we be old, lol. For the most part, we do have a lot of the answers because we've seen a bunch and lived through a whole lot more. Those are our strengths. Most of the time we'll just roll our eyes and get up and do what we've done so many times before.