This topic was briefly touched upon but never really discussed at great length.
There may come a time when you realize that there’s strength and support in numbers. When that time happens, let’s hope you’ve already laid the ground work for a MAG.
A Mutual Assistance Group (MAG) can be just about any group that has a mutual interest in a particular subject and shares ideas and information with its members. Let’s look at the members of a writer’s group. There is quite a diverse selection of the population represented within the membership of such a site. We have people from all over the world and the United States and from all walks of life. Old, young, in between. They all make up one like-minded group that has a mutual interest, writing.
That is the basis for any MAG. A mutual interest in a specific topic or subject. A good example of an existing MAG is the Parent/Teacher Associations (PTA). The assistance part of the Writer’s MAG is where they post information ranging from new books, publishers, publishing dates, etc. They are assisting each other with information about a topic that interests them therefore; writers in a writing group are generically a Mutual Assistance Group.
For those of us that are interested in forming a regional MAG based on an interest in surviving a coming apocalypse be it a zombie apocalypse, a major terrorist event, total economic meltdown or a massive natural disaster, need to take the time and send out ‘feelers’ to people who might be interested. What that means is forming an online group for your region and discussing how to generally deal with any kind of disaster but with a focus specifically on the events that are most common for your area/region. This is a major time consuming task and one that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Anyone can claim to be anything online as I’m sure we’ve all become aware of.
When you reach the stage where you feel you want to initiate a face to face meet with one or more members of your online group, you need to do so in a public, neutral location like say Starbucks or a McDonalds. Don’t ever divulge personal information at this meet. If you or the person you’re meeting has any issue with the group that is the time to sound off about them. If the person is a good fit then work with them over a period of time eventually moving the meeting location to one of your homes if you so desire and are comfortable with that. It’s possible that this new member has other people in mind that might be a good fit for the group.
Network with them to find out. One option to consider is having a public meeting at a park, reserve an activity shelter and make it a potluck social. Those are excellent meet and greets and you can see the potential members of your MAG and how they interact with each other.
Once you have the core members of the group established, you need to find out how the group will run. Will it be an election process where one or more members are elected to leadership positions? Or will it be structured like a military unit with an established chain of command? This is a decision that needs to be addressed as the group is forming. Too many times groups start out with good intentions then several people decide to become the Alpha and attempt to take on authority not granted to them by the other members. To prevent this from happening, you as the founder of your group need to create events that the other members will attend such as a group weekend camping trip as one example. This is a good way to find out who pulls their weight and who the slacker is. Remember the formation of any group takes months if not years to work in the dynamics of all the personalities of its members. Some will be a good fit and others will not. Its during this time that some groups develop an election system for any positions that they create.
Once the slackers have either been removed or brought up to speed, the next course of action is to decide what the group will do in the event of a major disaster that affects your local area. Some groups train as CERT units to assist local emergency services while others form more of a neighborhood watch using programs like ‘Map Your Neighborhood’ provided by most local emergency agencies. Other groups step away from community assistance and move towards helping each other only and have a ‘buy-in’ where each member contributes towards the purchase of a remote, retreat property. Other groups require the purchase of similar equipment and weapons so that everyone has the same caliber for their rifles and handguns and carries all the same gear so it can be easily repaired. I know of one group that goes into so much detail that they have an actual outline of where items are carried on your person, on you tac vest and in your pack that is so detailed that it lists what pocket has what in it.
Mutual Assistance Groups are not for everyone. Some groups degenerate into a good old boys club where they spend most of their time drinking beer and reminiscing about their service days. There is a time and place for all that and using a group function to do that is not one of them. Other groups become shooting clubs and move away from their initial purpose and others just fall apart due to lack of interest. The worst case scenario for any MAG is to become some sort of paramilitary unit that gets labeled as a domestic terrorist group.
Sadly, that has happened and will probably happen again in the future.
Forming a MAG is not something to jump into blindly. It can and will take a very long time to coordinate with others that have an interest in this type of group. As I stated, it’s not for everyone. If you have an interest in either forming or joining one, research into what they do. If they’re above board, they’ll tell you what their primary goal is. Most are looking to be more self sufficient and not rely on outside sources. Any group that hides what their goal is is not one that you want to be associated with.
This is just a generalization of what a MAG could be. It’s up to you if you want to form or join one.
