Today a couple of ladies and I were talking about contingency planning for a pandemic for the BCP (Business Continuity Plan).

I was shocked to hear one of the ladies talk about her preps!  This came up when talking about how grocery stores and food supplies would be quite limited in an all-out pandemic.  She said she has "over six weeks, not including the chickens, goats and garden) worth of food.  She also has "over 50 gal water and is looking for ways to store more".

Holy crap, another preparation minded person sitting just a couple of cubes away.  The other lady (top level management) looked at us like we were nuts.  The "prep" girl and I just exchanged glances.  

I'm quite pleased to have a like minded person working with me.  She, like I has been curious about how others would perceive us "evil" survivalist types.  We both decided to keep rather quiet but we'd talk over lunch sometime.  Pretty cool!

Must be nice. I work for the Gov't. My co-workers don't get it.

How long can you store unopened gallon container of water? I always see experation dates 3yrs out.

Quoted: How long can you store unopened gallon container of water? I always see experation dates 3yrs out.

forever?  just add 8 drops of bleach and wait 30 minutes.

I have not had a meeting such as yours, but even in my basic talks with others at work, even 2 other guys who are AR owners, they give me wierd looks when I talk about my BOB and water/food/gas etc. Then I try to move on and change subject.
And I am just getting started! I know that this will continue to take more of a prominent part of my life, my preparedness efforts, that is.

" HONEY, who are all those hungry people on the lawn with torches".............."I DON'T know...... I ONLY told the people at work where every possible thing is kept"

Quoted: I have not had a meeting such as yours, but even in my basic talks with others at work, even 2 other guys who are AR owners, they give me wierd looks when I talk about my BOB and water/food/gas etc. Then I try to move on and change subject. And I am just getting started! I know that this will continue to take more of a prominent part of my life, my preparedness efforts, that is.

Not telling aquaintances about your preps may save you from having to make a horrible decision one day when they try to kick down your front door.

I agree with not telling folks about everything.  Prep girl volunteered her info, a little to much for the audience but I think she was kinda proud of her accomplishments.

I on the other hand, just gave a vague idea of what I have, and tried to convince the boss lady she might want to rethink her position.  Not forcefully, just suggesting.

I plan on having another talk with prep girl privately and let her know she might want to be a little more guarded in her conversations.

 

Quoted: " HONEY, who are all those hungry people on the lawn with torches".............."I DON'T know...... I ONLY told the people at work where every possible thing is kept"

when at your meeting,co workers etc, you must blow smoke !
I know it is hard to do when asked for help prep wise or planning. As you have alot of info that could comein handy.
The best route though is to say.

" i am not worried on my end i have the .govs recommened 3 days and  a few days more to be safe, dont wanna end up on a bridge waving down a rescue chopper ya know...."

then explain that MOST have that much food already in a pantry,,,or least they should.
Also,never show pics of  your real preps here,or where your at etc etc ect   same  goes when talking with coworkers or having folks over.

Quoted: Today a couple of ladies and I were talking about contingency planning for a pandemic for the BCP (Business Continuity Plan).

Nationwide, in a Corp. setting, 90% of the time the women in the classes or meetings will take the pandemic/preps topic more seriously then men.

A group of us have noticed this from our professional experiences in training people for this.

Quoted: when at your meeting,co workers etc, you must blow smoke ! I know it is hard to do when asked for help prep wise or planning. As you have alot of info that could comein handy.

I have to disagree with this notion it would better to let them stumble when you can help.

You can teach others and help them to plan and go along with planning without letting everyone know you have a 6mo supply of food and decon station and mopp gear stored in your bunker out back.

Guess I am fortunate, 5 of the 7 people in the same location and department are preparedness minded and firearm friendly. We have frequent discussions regarding preps, guns, ammo, reloading.

Two years ago, there were only two of us, the others have come on board after hearing the two of us talk. The other original preparedness minded guy became firearm friendly to protect what he and his family have stored. The one lone female in our group was what I would consider a raging liberal two years ago, she now has completed her CHL and started prepping as well.

I have little problem telling others I am preparedness minded and offer advice.I do however limit knowledge of what I have to a select few people.  I figure each person you can get into the mindset is one less that I will need to worry about coming for an unplanned visit looking for a handout.

I've tried talking to a few of my friends and others that I work with as preping and I just about always get the same "your a loony" look from them. Now I just make excuses for my preps like all the food oh well thats because I live alone and its easy to cook that quickly and not have a bunch left over or well I'm gone a lot with work so food in the fridge goes bad before I can get to it. All that ammo oh ya I'm going shooting this weekend. The water oh thats because my tapwater tastes nasty. Stuff like that. Funny thing is all of a sudden when all these adds for having three days of supplies came out my the higher ups in our command was all about making sure everyone who lived out in town knew that we should have some supplies on hand. I just nodded my head and said I would get right on that.

Folks around here (gov't office) don't seem to take anything seriously.  The local health department has been attaching info on our pay stubs lately about being prepared and most of them hit the bottom of the trash can.  I like to look the info over to see if I am missing anything.  Since hitting up this forum I have found that I am ahead of the curve as compared to what the health department suggests (thanks to all the wonderful information being passed around here) and I have really just started and see a lot of room to self-improve.  I just recently have been able to have open discussions with friends about being prepared without them looking at me like I am totally nuts.  In fact, they have gone on a few shopping adventures with me and we are trying to bounce ideas off each other.

protus - You're exactly right on not showing all/most of your prep's to people.  There's one coworker here that I'm more open with, well we both are really.  But he's a fellow AR15 guy and we really use it to feed off and run ideas past each other.  Granted that could be a mistake, but we've got a basic line of trust I think.

As far as others go, VERY TRUE.  A woman who was visiting her mother when I gave a talk at my church about the subject (modified heavily for being mostly "sheeple") contacted me afterwards to give their neighborhood a presentation.  I accepted the offer because I truly hope and want people to prepare.  However, when she came over and started asking to see my prep's, inventories, etc... it made me feel very uneasy.  I was able to wiggle out of it by telling her that I really only got in the prep mindset a few months ago and only had a "Get Home Bag" which I keep at work and am working to get my BOB/72-hour kit, and a kit for the car ready.

But it made me step back and think afterwards that I don't really want someone I don't trust knowing what I've got or what my exact plans are.

I do think it's a good idea still to help people become aware and to share some of your basic preps (stuff anyone should have) that wouldn't make you look like a target in an extended event.

It could be different speaking with someone who has a 3-month supply of food and water put away, and your typical cluelss co-worker who couldn't come up with a workable plan for a trip to the bathroom. One could be an ally with whom you could exchange ideas and information, the other your worst nightmare. The tricky part is in learning who's who without compromising the security of your own operation.

The first question that would have come to mind for me as this woman was telling me of her survival plans, was how many others she had told of this. If I then share my plans with her, I might be jeopardizing my own security by trusting a source that might blow my cover. The fact that she shared her plans openly and not in a more guarded one-on-one conversation, would have furthered my suspicions about her as a security risk.

Maybe I'm just a little too cautious (I don't think so), but that's just the way that I approach a mission like this.