Positive Activist Prepping

[hobo]

Your thoughts please....

This is an idea a group of us are committing to in my area....

There's the 'grey man' approach to prepping, but what about positive activist prepping? Prepping for TSHTF while trying to build examples of a different system that will be ready to function when needed.

We've started with a free community (with preppers and non-preppers) - we have give & take free market days, skill swaps and regular guerrilla gardening sessions, for example.
We're holding a moneyless free music and arts festival next month.
Within a year we aim to have a give & take free shop and a pay-what-you-like cafe.
We're hoping to have a cohousing project established within 5 years.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-housing

[Yorkshire Andy]

Good luck hobo

how about sustainable communication within the group? cb / ham radio/ whatsapp/ private facebook page ((all have their good and bad points) ...... Thinking in a bad situation mobile networks go down be it system overload (been there experienced that when the humber and ouse was coming over i couldn't make a call due to "network busy") your group can keep in touch

branching out further your mob could be a asset say missing persons with a reliable network to pass messages back to the police from areas with no mobile signal such as the north yorkshire moors ?

[Deeps]

If it works for you Hobo it sounds brilliant, if there's enough of you then it might work. There's a downside to being obvious but there's a big upside too if you've got a local group that is large enough (and serious enough if required) then that's the first step made if it starts getting messy. You're already a group that has a known quantity, the only fly in the ointment is that some who seem solid might not be when the risk of danger arises, a sore face gives you a new world view, even if its forgotten after a while. The coming together of knowledge and experience could be invaluable though. Good luck with it.

[HBP]

How about contacting the county councils resilience forum to discuss getting their support for commuinity emergency planning?

http://emergencynorthyorks.gov.uk/index ... leid=11782

Having put a lot of effort into community resilience in other countries, I would be interested to see how local government in the UK approach it

[Wulfshead]

On the comms side of things with aim to help the emergency services, I would make your first point of call to RAYNET, the radio amateur emergency network.
RAYNET have and do get called in by the emergency services who then may use the amateur equipment or relay messages via a licensed amateur station on site.
CB and PMR may help but neither can use amateur frequencies so further equipment and relaying would be needed.
Still, if you can earn brownie points for your group by trying then I'd give it a go.

Wulfshead

[Yorkshire Andy]

On the comms side of things with aim to help the emergency services, I would make your first point of call to RAYNET, the radio amateur emergency network.
RAYNET have and do get called in by the emergency services who then may use the amateur equipment or relay messages via a licensed amateur station on site.
CB and PMR may help but neither can use amateur frequencies so further equipment and relaying would be needed.
Still, if you can earn brownie points for your group by trying then I'd give it a go.

Wulfshead

I know the night this area flooded farmers were using CB to organise themselves

and mobile internet still worked even though the voice calls and text messages were not sending... so whatapp let me stay in touch (and you can do a group message)


groups of people can do good i remember seeing this on the local news / radio

http://gooletimes.info/local-heroes-hol ... 65-118.htm

[Wulfshead]

Yes Andy, of course groups can do good, what I was implying is that perhaps asking RAYNET how the group could assist may not be a bad idea.
My fault, I should have written that !
Just seems to me that an established emergency radio network could offer ideas and perhaps open a door for mutual emergency assistance.

Wulfshead

[grenfell]

I think it's an excellent idea ultimately by far better than everyone trying to go their own way. One thing I would say though is to never use the word "prepper" . Whilst on here it just means people with a bit of common sense to others it means weird pessimists with bunkers and guns. The press would I feel lean towards the latter and it could kill a project in its infancy. Much better to use terms like "sustainable community" , "local resilience " and place emphasis on helping people in the here and now rather than in some sort of post crash world. I wish you every luck in your efforts.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Yes Andy, of course groups can do good, what I was implying is that perhaps asking RAYNET how the group could assist may not be a bad idea.
My fault, I should have written that !
Just seems to me that an established emergency radio network could offer ideas and perhaps open a door for mutual emergency assistance.

Wulfshead

Yes I agree but since its a new small group I can see talk of geeks and UHF/vhf and licences scaring the "normals"


However if you live on high ground the offer of a drive way a garden to erect antenna and tea / toilet facility's or an extension lead to raynet operators might be well received

That and people are not going to want to blow £40> on a radio and licences.


Yet most have a mobile phone and many have Facebook / WhatsApp....


A few might have PMR radios from the kids wanting to play hide and seek

[junmist]

I think this is a great idea hobo . On one note I would not have a pay what you can café though it's a nice idea some people will take advantage of it, just have very low prices. I can't think what's it called at the mo, but you can have a scheme where people put money into a pot in the café to give a homeless person a free hot meal or drink which is a nice idea. Good luck with it and let us know how it works out and any problems you have with it setting it up.