Essential skills for a group ?

[Carrot Cruncher]

A bit of a ramble but I do get to the point eventually

I drive Articulated Trucks for a living. If for whatever reason TSHTF the chances of me being useful as a driver are at best fairly limited. I have done various jobs over the years from labouring to management roles but dont have a trade as such. With a lot of things I know a little bit but am no expert, as the old saying goes "jack of all trades, master of none"

As prepping is about learning skills just as much as getting kit and learning how to use it, what skills could someone like me learn while still working and making a living etc that would be useful to a group post TS hitting TF. Learning to be a Doctor would obviously be useful but not very practical to learn while holding down a job so it would probably have to be something a little less ambitious

Before deciding on what skills to learn I guess the first thing to do would be to decide what skills would be essential / useful to a group

So a few essential / useful group skills that I can think of (in no particular order):

Doctor/Medic/Herbalist/Nurse etc
General Builder
Farmer
Mechanic
Engineer
Hunter/Trapper/Fisherman
Food Preserving
Dressmaker/Tailer
Forestry
Blacksmith
Navigation and Map Reading
Horse skills
Security
Cooking
Vet

Anyone got any more to add ?

CC

[itsybitsy]

Dentists
Opticians
Gardening (i.e. growing veg, storing/germinating/cross pollinating seeds etc etc) as it's not quite the same as farming
Animal husbandry
Metal working (may need to make weapons/tools)
Carpentry

I think if TS REALLY HTF and we are talking about a major EOTWAWKI event, then anyone who had teaching skills/knowledge may be invaluable as, effectively, we would be starting again.

[lisaloolibell]

how about people skills being able to co-ordinate a group effort, delegate tasks, organisation, tact, diplomacy etc

negotiation, bartering

[dch]

a clear head and a plan that is flexable,

just 2p from me

[Carrot Cruncher]

a clear head and a plan that is flexable,

just 2p from me

Very true, but I was thinking more along the lines of skills you could learn before any event that would make you useful to a group after an event. There will be lots of people offering manual labour in exchange for joining a group but a group will only have room for a certain amount of manual labourers. I think it would be in our interests to have a skill that is in demand and one that most groups would welcome.

[dch]

bushcraft ?

if i was asked about my wish list for a community post SHTF in the style of dinner part guests when people always say "gandie", top of my list after family would be ray mears.

[Carrot Cruncher]

top of my list after family would be ray mears.

Should TSHTF he would be top of my "phone a friend" list as well

[scoobie]

I think we'd also need people who for want for a better expression, and apologies in advance for using this phrase..can think outside of the box in more than one single area for finding new ways of doing things..

Inventor types really is what I mean I think (as well as all previous suggestions!!)

[diamond lil]

........Knit socks.........? Or balaclavas, or jumpers or neckwarmers Skin gut and cook game....... erm. Erm. Talk a lot ? Ok. I'm just going !

[Damkina]

Herbalist? Or would that come under bushcraft?

Or one of those historians/reenactment people from the Roman, Briton or Medieval groups. I was once chatting with one who was in the Medieval group and who was also a Chemist. She was making all the old remedies and checking them off through modern science to see what worked and why.

She said many would be better to use than some modern medicines.