I'm often asked "How do I find people in my area that share my interest in preparedness?"
When recruiting for a retreat group, or if you are considering joining an existing one, proceed with prayer.
To supplement your own extended family, try to find folks with the same religious background and representing a good mix of skills. My novel "Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse" describes some of the specific skills that would be ideal for a group retreat--like a doctor, a mechanic, a machinist/welder, a farmer, a combat veteran, and so on. If you are already living at your intended retreat, it is probably best to recruit locally. If not, then you should probably recruit regionally looking for preparedness-minded people that have the same long-term relocation destination, or at least people with the willingness to be flexible about where they relocate.
I recommend two web sites (one paid, and one free) for making connections--whether you are looking to join or form a retreat group, or even for someone looking looking for a "prepper" spouse. They are:
- - The Survivalist Groups ["Meet-up"] web page--a free service courtesy of the folks at SurvivalistBooks.com. BTW, if you use this service, then please give SurvivalistBooks.com some business. Buy a couple of books. They have a great selection.
- - eHarmony (a paid matchmaking service--based on in-depth questionnaires)
Needless to say, use discretion when using these services. As a prepared individual, you have more to lose than most folks. For your safety and security, it is better to go through a long series of correspondence and to do some background and reference checking before revealing your home address or phone number. You might even want to set up a separate Hotmail or Gmail account, just for the purposes of making such contacts. Think OPSEC
Another method of finding like-minded people has had remarkable success: wearing or carrying the SurvivalBlog logo. We offer a variety of T-shirts, hats, bumper stickers, and tote bags with the distinctive SurvivalBlog logo. Many of these items are sold at cost. I have heard from folks throughout the US and Canada, and even from as far away as Iraq that have had people stop dead in their tracks and exclaim with a huge grin: "You read SurvivalBlog?" If you trust in Divine Providence, make a point of wearing a SurvivalBlog T-shirt when you attend public events such as gun shows, or conservative political events, or when you go to your local shooting range. You will be surprised at who you run into.
Copyright 2008. All Rights Reserved by James Wesley, Rawles - www.SurvivalBlog.com™