Social Networking for the Survivor, by Joshua R.
It used to be called a ‘couple of buddies’, a ‘circle of friends’, a ‘community’, a ‘neighborhood’…now we have a ‘social network’. But whatever you call it, we humans are social creatures and surrounding yourself with like minded individuals is enriching to every aspect of life. As preppers or survivalists (or whatever term helps you feel cozy), we seem to constantly buck the trends of our naïve society and end up feeling a bit lone wolfish. Through the last two years, as my mentality shifted to one of preparedness and sustainability, I’ve begun to meet people of a similar mindset. The superfluous nature of a Facebook profile or Myspace page doesn’t appeal to my needs. Though I found that creating a profile of my skills and resources, and those of my peers has become an invaluable tool. Technology only serves us in as much as it helps us evolve in tangible ways. The idea of social networking ultimately dates back to the dawn of man, so using technology to connect a group of people committed to helping themselves (individually and collectively) can bring real world benefits to our efforts as prepared individuals and close knit communities.
I’m a talented carpenter, the proud bearer of a green thumb, a home brewed beer enthusiast and proficient storer of food. My older neighbor across the street maintains a near year round garden, is a retired electrician, and has been successfully treating he and his wife’s ailments (including his cancer) almost completely holistically for over eight years. My good friend is a solar whiz, an amazing machinist, and treats all the sewage from his household cleanly and efficiently. While I’m familiar with all the attributes of these people simply due to the familiarity of our relationships, I began to meet their friends and their friends’ friends. Obviously, it can be hard to keep track of who’s who and who knows what. Additionally, our current economy helps locally based self sufficiency shine in the face of a faltering global economy. It became obvious i knew people that could use my skills as much as I could benefit from theirs. We shared individual knowledge of a region and its resources, and each had unique ways of getting what they needed from their own backyard. That’s when I began the email list…
Its started innocently enough. I started a short email list, we’d chat a bit or discuss our views on ‘How it will all go down’. But soon the list began to grow, I enacted an encryption protocol to provide a modicum of privacy, and we began assessing ourselves. We listed our skills in turn, detailed our resources, bemoaned our weaknesses. Soon enough I got an email from a friends’ friend, he wanted to dehydrate his seasons surplus, package it into recipes and set it down for long term storage. In trade he had the beginnings of a solar setup and the know how to get me started with a reasonable battery backup unit. Soon I found that others were bartering and horse trading their way to a better tomorrow as well. Though our list is really only 26 or so regular contributors we’re all becoming more educated, better connected, and generally getting more from making our preparations. Since its earliest form the list is becoming more evolved, better organized and more educated. Here are a few guidelines that contributed to making our network a better resource. Hopefully, they’ll help you out should you choose to form your own survivor network. Additionally, I’ll add a few tips and ideas towards the end of the article that helped us round out our network and make it more applicable.
Keep it simple…
When I saw the e-mails amongst friends having the potential of being a real resource I entertained the idea of password protected forums, membership rules and bizarre moonlight initiation rituals. But I realized that the free form structure allowed for more openness and ease of use. The network is meant to be a well organized repository of resources, knowledge and contacts…yes. But it shouldn’t take a bunch of effort to maintain and grow. If its a time consuming pain in the ass, no one wants to contribute and your network will wilt.
Keep it Local…
While its fun to chat in forums with friends around the world on a topic we all know and love, keeping your list reasonably limited to people near you will improve its usability. Though I have a cousin 1,400 miles away that keeps up with it and contributes often. He can’t really let us know about local resources for cheap materials, we can’t barter labor with him or make our resources available to him conveniently. The real power of this list has been its ability to bring us together physically to create real world changes in our homes and localities. A big part of our list revolves around this function, and that real world interaction is what brings us together and helps us start to rely on someone other than ourselves. And ultimately, that’s the goal…use technology to better connect with people close to you in order to help one another be better prepared for a changing future. Lastly, the local nature of our network benefits our own communities and puts us in touch with others near us. Sure, I can purchase many items from an online store and save a bit on tax or shipping, but should a friend clue me in to a local source for that same item, I may find myself tapping into a wealth of contacts and local options that may be more useful in difficult circumstances.
Keep Politics Out…
Most of us agree in one form or another that big change to our daily lives is an eventuality. But not all of us agree on the who/what/when/where/why of the cause for this change. And usually that topic leads to political discussion, or theological debate or a bit of bickering…it doesn’t help us to be prepared spending time trying to sway another to our way of thinking. While lively debate can be enjoyable. No one wants to anxiously await an informative email, only to receive a bunch of soap box rhetoric. ‘Nuff said.
Keep it FUN…
We put in a lot of energy, research and resources into our preparations. Protecting ourselves and more importantly our family from any coming crisis (from brief unemployment to TEOTWAWKI scenario’s) is exhaustive work and not many would consider it “fun”. Although, peace of mind invaluable, our lives needn’t be consumed by this dark notion we entertain. When one of us is undertaking a new build or project, many of us like to lend a hand. We get together to learn as a group from the ideas of one. We help out and offer our own research and experiences. Often, one of us will set about a task and by its completion it has become a wholly different animal from the original concept, benefiting from the networks knowledge. When we get together we grow together, and celebrate the accomplishments of a friend. Frequent barbeque parties and home brew tastings draw us together and strengthen our resolve (much to the chagrin of our livers). Some of us have found it hard to relate to people who remain deeply entrenched in the consumer culture, and so our group functions are a time to be amongst friends free from judgments about or world views.
Our network is young, but its amazing how important to all of us involved it has become. Its a serious task we set ourselves to, but with a little help from our friends it can be as rewarding (if not more so) as any job or hobby. Take the time to seek out others who share your ideals and get to know them, let the list happen organically at first, there is no need to rush it. Everyone’s idea of how the future will play out is different, but as the idea of self sufficiency and sustainability come closer to the front of human consciousness we’ll find partners all around us.
Lastly here’s a few ideas we’ve either implemented or entertained…
- Some members might like to contribute their contact info and a quick description of their skill sets and resources to a shared database. I keep a list in a small address book, it comes in handy when I start researching something new that a member might already know about. It also might be invaluable should things get hairy…
- Some of us have created a group bug-out/bug-in plan. We have multiple meeting places, a communication protocol, and a loose list of individual responsibilities should we decide to weather the storm as a group.
- We use a shared encryption key and enacted a strict privacy policy. Remember though, informational security rests in the hands of the individual first. Only share info you feel comfortable sharing, with those you feel comfortable sharing it with.
- Use discretion when adding a new person to the list…usually we’ll introduce a new member around at a function before sharing too much info about the network. For the most part though, an open and accepting group is better than any alternative.
- Document any applicable projects and share them. I designed and built some storage shelves. So I shared some pictures, a material list, and a brief description of the construction process. Another member shared some wiring diagrams for his solar system. Sure, all these things are available on the net, but I can call a buddy to clarify details. Likewise, he can ask me to come over and help him out. So the info becomes much more accessible and user friendly.
- Share your research. Many times you’ll find someone’s been there done that, sometimes you’ll find something they missed. As a group we share a ton of books and info, which helps us all be on the same level.
- Find someone who brews his own beer and add him to the list asap, it’ll help your group functions be that much more fun…
Finally, good luck! The times they are changing.