Anyone have any thoughts about Meetup.com and finding preparedness groups in your area? I’m leary, very leary actually. However, I also don’t live in a traditional “neighborhood”.
Be careful of advertised prepper meet ups. Some might be ok. I went to one where nearly 100 people came. This was even sponsored by a “preacher” and his family, and was held at their church compound out in a large wooded area of several acres. The speakers were trying to sell stuff—overpriced prepper buckets filled with dime store crap that wouldn’t get you through 3 days; plus a lot of items like grain mills and fire starters that you can buy online much cheaper. They were taking orders; obviously planning to just order the items and resell to naive country folks at a huge markup. We were also to sign up for prepper classes on their website. As my skepticism was growing, I stepped outside and checked the website on my on my device. The website immediately asked for credit card information before giving out any info about anything. No way!! Back inside, my skepticism turned to outright alarm. Next speaker was a guy claiming to be from Homeland Security regaling us with tales of past disasters. I remember he mentioned truckloads of supplies being hijacked during Katrina. Then the preacher spoke again, telling us he’d had “dreams and visions”of making his compound available as a “refugee camp.” So IOW these folks were looking to sponsor a FEMA camp to rake in a pile of government cash. I beat it out of there.
IMO you’re better off asking discreetly people you already know. If you go to a meetup where you don’t know anyone, listen and ask questions, but avoid divulging info about yourself.