Meeting up locally definitely has a lot of advantages. I mentioned in an earlier post that we were using our state chapter of the American Prepper’s Network (APN) to divide our state into the five DHS regions and promote regional meetups.
The effort has met with mixed results. A couple of the regions have really taken off and people now meet regularly (camping weekends, potluck picnics, etc.) outside of any prepper forum framework. Other regions aren’t taking any action at all (no leader types), even though there are many APN members in the region. It seems like some people/regions are eager to meet up, but others are very isolated if not paranoid about being known or standing out. That really surprises me because, once you connect with local people, you can all sort of drop your internet exposure and work amongst yourself if you so choose.
It also appears that those that live in rural areas, are knowledgeable and fairly well setup, are less likely to be social than those who live in urban areas and are trying to gather knowledge and materials. I guess it comes down to your personal prepping mindset. If you’re thinking about teaming up in preparation for natural or man-made disaster, you tend to want to hook up. If your thoughts go to New World Order, Agenda 21 and FEMA camps, then you might tend to trust less, hunker down and stay under everybody’s radar.
Still, meetup.com is a great start to pull local people and resources together. It would be great to hear if someone from this forum is successful in getting even a small group set up.
