Hi Semper. I look forward to your common sense survival threads.

I find "getting the word out" to be a subtle thing. It's when you come face to face with the real sheeple that we always joke about. Case in point, I'm throwing a Pre-End-of-the World party the weekend before 12/21, and when I invited several friends, their response was, "What? Is the world supposed to end or something?" Now, let me say that I believe there's a quite decent chance that we'll all wake up on 12/22 with nothing major having happened; nevertheless, I was astonished to find that about a half to a third of the people had never heard anything about 12/21, the Mayan calendar, the Hopi predictions, etc. These people are mostly ordinary doctors, engineers, IT pros, teachers and other professionals.

Do you have any suggestions for ways to introduce a survival forum to such folks?

I'm always around to answer questions as well as learn something.

I look forward to your common sense survival threads.

Originally posted by semperfortis

I have found that by introducing it as a fun thing to be involved in, gets me a lot farther.

Example

I pick a nice, cool evening and invite some friends over. Get them into the backyard and begin to start a fire using a Ferro Rod, set up a quick shelter etc.. The questions inevitably come and by then I have their attention and can steer things into all the survival talk I want..

I have used this tactic with some of my anti-gun friends. while BBQ'ing, I would beak out the .22 and start target shooting, look at one of them and say, "Wanna try?"

All it takes is for one to start shooting and then the rest will end up tagging along. Then the next BBQ, I brought out the .22 along with some other weapons, nothing fancy, just larger caliber. Oh, and the shotgun.

Everytime when they leave, they thank me for a great time, bruised shoulders and a smile on their face. And wondering what would be the best gun for them.

That's a great idea!!
I have been pissing people off for years now,(pardon the language) talking about being ready for anything.
The best approach that I have found for spreading the word is to point out the extreme situations that can happen anywhere. Hurricane Sandy is a perfect example, and well publicized now.

Even with fires, floods, typhoons, earthquakes and volcanoes here though people still just like to be oblivious sometimes.

My biggest concern lately has been what do I do now that the people who refused to listen will want me to feed them. They all know I am a sucker about hungry kids too. I don't know what will happen if something really does, but I do know those people will also be working their a*%#s off for a meal. On the other hand I guess I also know about a half a dozen families who have started to put some serious effort in to protect their families so it goes both ways.

I feel I also have to point out one more thing though too. People can surprise you sometimes. We recently moved a family into our home and bent over backward to help them relocate. This was a friend of mine for almost 20 years. After they moved in apparently I was only a fear monger and they decided to sit on their asses and watch me take care of our homestead. When the fact that we were feeling used was brought up, they literally moved out right then. No apologies, no contact, nothing.
I am upset that a 20 year friendship is gone, but I am also glad that I knew the situation before a real emergency came up.

Sorry for the rant! It has been heavy on my mind lately. S & F!! I really hope this idea takes off

I spread the word daily to deaf ears.

But every once in awhile I get a bite.
Finally got my wife and kids on board and not thinking I'm nuts.
The show doomsday preppers helps alot with that.

Looking forward to this thread progressing,thanks!

I speak doom to everyone i know
with my hair all frazzeled,, waving my hands wildly, and speaking franticly
I tell them of impending catastrophic disaster which lies ahead..
then I mention ATS and this awesome forum..and its all good..

The biggest problem as I see it is that most of the people we're trying to attract still believe the MSM. They see the announcements that say "if you do this, that, or the other - you might be a terrorist". The MSM makes those who prepare for various emergencies out to be lunatics or "bad guys".

All of the people in Sandy's path have at one time or another been warned to have sufficient resources stocked to take care of themselves, but it takes most people first hand experience to learn that lesson. They've been told to have evacuation plans decided upon and ready to execute. They've been told to have food and water stored.

You can lead these horses to water, but they refuse to drink. You can push them in but they'll just sink and drown rather than swim.

Some people listen and some don't. I see a lot of the people I have been telling to get prepared for disasters finally coming around. I started telling people to get prepared with secondary heat and ways of preparing food a while back and they thought I was a little crazy. Now they see that it is necessary to prepare and it is way more expensive now. There are many reasons that people should have some food stored in their homes. There can be a pandemic, there can be seismic events anywhere, there can be weather events that disrupt the food supply. Another major thing is food poisoning, the recalls take months to uncover so keeping the foods a few months in advance gives time for the food poisoning recall to happen. I just threw out three jars of peanut butter that were recalled, it wasn't worth the gas to go to the store and return them.

People's eyes are starting to open to all these things. I think it is not necessary personally to stock more than a couple months of food myself but others could be right in storing for longer times. I only look at the odds of things happening, assessing the risk. I do keep six months of coffee on hand We weathered through the last fluxuation without having to buy coffee when it was over ten bucks a can. I won't stock more food than we can rotate before it gets too old to eat. This is my main reason for only stocking a few months of supplies, I don't like to waste. I stock a few months food for my whole family, including my daughters family and my other daughter. That makes nine people total to stock for, there are only my wife and I to rotate this food. If my daughter started to stock up a little, which she can't afford to do with four kids, then we would have a longer supply, two people could eat off our foodstores for a year. So you see, I can't judge those who stock up for a year, I actually am stocked up for two people for a year but realize I cannot let my kids and grandchildren go without food if needed. That is where my rotation problem comes to play, I can't go any bigger without wasting money.

I am a Finn, Finns are often very frugal people. They look for deals and try to conserve. We have had the minds of our young tainted so they feel that society can always take care of them. This is only true if there is a stable economy and no problems with the supply lines. We are in risky times and this is not delusional thinking. Too many risks have been allowed to be taken in this country that have severely weakened our country. Too much greed has been allowed to strip the wealth of our nation and it's masses. This will not end well my fellow ATSers, it's not over yet. In fact it may just be beginning.

The most important people in this country is yourself and your family. The second most important people are your true friends. Are your friends true friends or fair weather friends? This is a point of view perception that should be considered when the SHTF. The people that excelled in my local community were the ones that helped others if they could after the great depression. The people saw these people tried to help and supported them when it was all over, giving them the praise to start a business. Remember not to get cranky and to try to help others if you can and have extra that you will not need. Be wary of who you help, don't help those who do not need help but say they do. Some people will have food stores and try to get food from you to replenish their stores or to save their food. This is a problem that will happen, know who you help....go with your gut feeling.

I converted a dyed in the wool anti gun lunatic by introducing her to a pistol piece by piece.
Then she wanted to put it together. After that she wanted to see it shoot.
You can guess the rest.
When she saw it as a tool instead of part of an agenda she was open to it.

Can we get a few stickies compiled? I would gladly help, as I am sure many others would. Some ideas:
Foods, because it seems like every day someone makes a new thread asking what about what survival food to get, or whats in your pantry, etc. I think a well made thread on this subject would be extremely beneficial.
Water: Maybe just throw it in the food thread? But, how to find it, how to clean/filter it, etc, etc.
All of these proposed sticky threads would cover both urban/wilderness.