So can people bring stuff to eat I make a mean choc chip cookies

So can people bring stuff to eat I make a mean choc chip cookies

Yes you can bring snacks, and no there is no charge but if you want to donate a lonnie or tonnie to the cause to help cover with room rental that would be fine but we don't expect anything...Thanks for asking.....

Will do my best to attend

Hello all,

We have successfully launched our new meetup group for Plan "C" Emergency Preparedness Alberta. Please refer to the link below to join and RSVP to events. Currently the next meeting is listed on the front page or simply click the following link http://www.meetup.com/Plan-C/events/162592822/ . Please RSVP if you are going to attend out next meeting in Deer Run.

http://www.meetup.com/Plan-C/

Furthermore, if anyone needs assistance with creating a Meetup.com account please contact me or post here.

Here are a few Q & A I encountered.

Q1: Does meetup cost anything to join?
Q2: What does Meetup enable us to do, in comparison to PreppersNetwork.

A1: To join meetup.com is free. Once you join the site, there are countless "groups" like ours. Some groups charge to either join or are free but charge for events, but 95% or more are completely free like ours. Once you join a group with your account you are basically subscribing to their channel or feed. This allows you to receive automatic email feeds for scheduled meetups, events, updates, new members, etc. The best way to look at it is like the PreppersNetwork blog. All it does is generate a creative hub to bring people of the same interest to one location, then enhances your abilities to communicate and schedule with those people. Meetup is PreppersNetwork/a blog on roids with its own group calendar.

With that said, to create the "groups" (not your personal account, but the actual groups or hubs that you can join) does cost. The founders of the groups are charged about $70 for six months. I discovered a nice 50% off coupon so I only paid $35 for the first six months.

A2: Decisions as a group - Like I said, the meetup group allows us to have a preppersnetwork on roids. This enables us to take donations online prior to any actual events, network with other like minded groups and scout for members, advertise sponsors or perks for the group (example: 10% off at shooting range for members, 5% off Bob's Solar etc). It is also an excelent hub to offer various blogs from our members. For example, I already uploaded tons of official documents from the Govnt of Alberta in regards to disaster preparedness. So when anyone joins, they have easy access to these files that are actually kinda difficult to find, in turn creating our own knowledgebase. There are tons of other features too, including an event calendar shared by all members. In general, it allows the group to be efficient at startup level, and easily expand as far as possible without any limitations. Unlike the PreppersNetwork, which lacks certain features that would enhance our ability to organize events, etc.

So are we required to join this meetup thing to come to the meeting in March? Or am I free to come check it out based on the invitation I received here?

➡ ➡ We strongly encourage that you join meetup so that we can take a close head count. Reason being, the last event was 30+ people and we see it only getting larger. Things start to get difficult to manage at this point. On top of that, we are ran by donations, so if we rent a space for 60 on a guess from the forum, but 10 show, we arent setting ourselves up for success. With Meetup, you RSVP giving us an accurate head count and allowing us to find an appropriate space for the amount of people showing up. I believe firecodes will eventually start restricting us at our usual locations, so it is very important for us to know if we start exceeding or getting close to those limitations. That way we can find suitable replacement locations efficiently.

Furthermore, Meetup makes it much more convenient for you. You register with your email. Whenever we make a change or update to the meeting, say postponed for an hour, you would be updated immediately, instead of having to check the forum. It can even send you an automatic text if you link your phone to the account. For our convenience, we can send everyone that has RSVP'd an email simultaneously, making our job much easier for any updates or questions.

In the future, or perhaps even this meeting after we discuss things, we may require members to RSVP via Meetup. Otherwise, the meetings may not be sustainable if people drive for hours only to find that we can't fit everyone due to fire codes, etc. Ironically... we wish to be PREPARED for the future expansion of the meetings. I have a feeling everyone on this forum can understand that, haha. We suggest everyone try to get in the hang of it now if you can.

If you need any help or tips with the account setup, just let me know in a message or just post in my "Meetup" post. I really really don't mind, so don't be shy.

Thanks and I look forward to seeing everyone there. 🙂

@ Tucker_Blue

Ok that all makes a lot of sense. It's good to see that you are taking this seriously and that the meetings have a prepared and organized leader.
How much notice do you need for the RSVPs? It is quite a drive for us to Calgary, so it isn't a for sure thing yet.

Thanks 🙂 -prep4SHTF

@ Tucker_Blue

Ok that all makes a lot of sense. It's good to see that you are taking this seriously and that the meetings have a prepared and organized leader.
How much notice do you need for the RSVPs? It is quite a drive for us to Calgary, so it isn't a for sure thing yet.

Thanks 🙂 -prep4SHTF

The sooner the better, it isnt too big of a deal if you wait it out a little longer before RSVP'ing, but we prefer you RSVP even if you think you are going to make it. I would suggest a month in advance at latest. Reason being, you can always cancel your RSVP on meetup. We plan things much earlier than the actual due date, so having a rough guess now, with a few people canceling near the due date, is much better than members waiting, we prepar for 30, then they RSVP at the last minute and 45 show up. In other words, there is nothing wrong with canceling your RSVP later.

And yes, we take these meeting very seriously. We all have a lot of fun and enjoy great learning, but when something is organized by a bunch of preppers you can bet it will be well prepared, haha.

Thanks for the good questions Prep4SHTF

it told me i could not rsvp till feb 15

it told me i could not rsvp till feb 15

Thank you for letting me know. I bet we have missed some RSVP's due to that. It is fixed now. Thanks again!

I'd also like to reinforce that Meetup is a social networking tool that makes it easier to organize "meetings".

This is not a new forum or new website. There will be resources listed (such as links to this forum) and whatever else members want to share.

The forum tool that is built into the Meetup app would be used to discuss ideas for future topics, if anything at all. So we really want all of you to keep active here on this site and contribute your thoughts and questions for the larger Canadian audience to discuss. We use the IPN forums to gauge what topics may be of interest to our local audiences.

Sorry for sounding like a skipped record but I want to make sure we're all clear on this!

Thanks and hopefully see some of you out.

Add three more for attendance

When is the next meeting

Just wondering since I am new to this but still very excited if anyone will be bringing or discussing anything about vehicles?

Hey Psimms, Bigred and Redneck,
Have you registered with Meetup as well? We're doing our headcount and are at 33 people with the Meetup registrants alone. If we know how many of you and how many of the additional "lurkers" are planning on attending, it would make our lives that much easier.

We are close to the maximum allowable size for the room and have to either find a new venue or split the event into 2 meetings. Either option is fine but knowing who has registered will make planning much more accurate.

As for vehicles; that has been suggested for the next event.