Community Survival Action Plan
INTRODUCTION
This is a community survival action plan for organizing and
coordinating efforts for survival within a community during a time
of disorder and chaos. The term 'Community' in this plan
refers to the people living in a certain geographic area within
reasonable communication and transportation distance, in which the
people would be able to work together to aid in each other's
survival; but not larger than necessary to have enough people
skilled in each area of survival needed. It is not suggested
to just use the current existing local government structure during
survival because the community may very well extend to areas beyond
the current jurisdiction of the local government (which will
include people who did not have an opportunity to vote for the
leadership). Also, the existing local government is usually
composed in size of only a few council members which is too small
for the pressures and life and death decisions that have to be
made. Many of the people in the existing local government
will more than likely play a part in the new community and the
current government can also help play a vital role in getting the
new 'Community' established and off the ground.
The basic structure of this plan is to divide the 'Community' into neighborhoods, consisting in size of about as many people that would live on both sides of an average residential city street the length of one city block. These neighborhoods will elect amongst themselves a 'Neighborhood Representative' that will represent the neighborhood to the rest of the 'Community'. These 'Neighborhood Representatives' will make up a 'Council of Neighborhood Representatives' that will make decisions concerning the survival of the community. The 'Council of Neighborhood Representatives' will oversee 'Divisions' (departments), which are teams of people with certain survival skills from all the neighborhoods that will handle the different areas of need in the community's survival.
By having neighborhoods in the
'Community', it allows a smaller group of people to be able to take
care of each other and also allows a 'Neighborhood Representative'
that knows the people in the neighborhood to represent them to the
larger 'Community' of neighborhoods. On the other hand, the
larger 'Community' fills in for the needs that are not satisfied in
each smaller neighborhood (such as not every neighborhood will have
a doctor in residence) where people with special skills from many
different neighborhoods can work together on specific survival
needs.
STEPS OF ACTION
The first step needed to initiate this plan is for a temporary
pre-existing "authority" (maybe a current village council or just a
group of people that can rally the community together) to help
setup and take care of things until the 'Council of Neighborhood
Representatives' (abbreviated: 'CNR') can meet and make decisions
for the community's survival. Here are some first steps for
the pre-existing "authority" to take:
1. Send out people to the various neighborhoods to gather
the neighbors together and to inform each neighborhood of what plan
of action you are taking. Have each neighborhood choose
amongst themselves, by majority vote, a representative for their
neighborhood. Once a representative has been chosen, the
neighborhood will gather information (like a census) of the people
in their neighborhood in what skills they have, medical needs, and
other information that would be helpful to the 'Divisions' or
teams: such as how much food and water they have or would need,
shelter and clothing needs, and other resources they have that may
be of assistance to the community. The 'Neighborhood
Representatives' from each neighborhood will then all meet as soon
as possible in a set location to make decisions and coordinate the
larger Community's survival.
2. While the neighborhoods are being established, the
pre-existing "authority" will begin to setup a few immediately
needed 'Divisions' or skilled teams that are needed now in the
community. You may consider immediately needed the first
three 'Divisions' or teams that are listed below. The rest of
the 'Divisions', and others you may create, can be made active or
inactive later once the CNR meets. These 'Divisions' can also
have 'Sub-Divisions' or sub-teams within them to handle more
specific areas that each 'Division' covers. Everyone in the
community who is able will eventually be working in some 'Division'
within the 'Community' in some way. [Possible suggested
'Sub-Divisions' are in brackets after each possible 'Division'
below.]
#Health Division - This team should begin setting up a
medical center for the community where all of the injured that need
professional care can be taken. As many people skilled in the
medical profession should be found now, as is possible, to begin
helping any persons seriously injured or who have special medical
conditions. [Medical Center and related 'Sub-Divisions', Health
Safety (check safe food, water, housing, help prevent disease),
etc.]
#Search & Rescue Division - This team will help in
rescue efforts and coordinate picking up the pieces in the
aftermath of disaster. This 'Division' may be made inactive
by the CNR when it is no longer needed, but can be made active
again if needed.
#Communications and Information Division - This team should
be gathering the information collected from the various
neighborhoods and prioritizing what skills that each person has
would be best used where. This 'Division' will also
communicate the information they gather to other 'Divisions' to
help them in making decisions as to the community's need in a
certain area, like how much food needs to be found for a certain
neighborhood, or which people will be needing medical attention,
etc. This 'Division' will also provide a make-shift "postal
service" that will have people or "runners" to deliver messages
between the 'Divisions', the CNR, and the Neighborhoods to ensure
good communication and information exchange. [Census, Labor (places
people in 'Division' positions), Messaging, 'Community' Records
(secretary and library to CNR, decisions and regulations of CNR,
voting, etc.)]
*Agriculture Division - This team will coordinate finding
food and water that is safe for the community to consume.
This 'Division' should use the information provided by the
'Communications and Information Division' to determine where food
and water is available now and to ration the food to the various
neighborhoods. [Food Gathering, Water Gathering, Scouting (find
food and water sources), Preparing (food and water for
consumption)]
*Defense and Safety Division - This team would help provide
civil order and protection, especially in the beginning, from any
enemies of the community, internal or external, that would put the
community in danger. [Public Safety, Defense (external community
threats)]
*Evacuation Division - This team will plan what the
community will do in the case the environment in which they are
currently living is no longer suitable for habitation and the
community needs to evacuate and relocate. This 'Division'
will plan where to go, what to take and leave behind, and how to
prepare the neighborhoods for evacuation if necessary.
*Transportation Division - This team will help make
transportation possible for the movement of food, water, supplies,
and people to other areas where they are needed. This
'Division' will clear transportation paths and provide the
transportation, by whatever means available, for the movement of
supplies to Neighborhoods and for taking people to the Medical
Center, etc. [Clearing and Constructing (removing debris and making
paths for transport), Transport (moving goods, supplies, and people
to where they need to be)]
*Shelter & Housing Division - This team will provide
shelter and housing to those who need it. This 'Division'
will also provide warmth, if needed, by the gathering of fire
material and clothing, etc. for survivors. [Shelter Construction,
Clothing, Fire Maintaining and Gathering]
3. Community Procedures:
a) Once the 'Neighborhood
Representatives' are chosen and meet for the first time, they will
need to first choose a 'Moderator' to coordinate their
meetings. The 'Moderator' can be chosen by majority vote, and
be from amongst the representatives or could possibly be another
third person without a vote in the council. Once the CNR
elects a 'Moderator', the pre-existing "authority" will have
transferred authority for the 'Community' over to the 'Council of
Neighborhood Representatives'.
b) Each 'Neighborhood
Representative' should have meetings with their neighborhoods
frequently, especially before making major community decisions.
Whenever the CNR votes I would give each representative a number of
votes equal to the number of people in the neighborhood that they
represent. (For example, a representative that has 30 people in
their neighborhood would get 30 vote points in the council, one for
each person they represent.) This will ensure that all people
are represented equally since some neighborhoods may be slightly
bigger or smaller than others. Some neighborhoods could be
split or combined by the CNR if they are too big or too
small. You should try to keep all the neighborhoods about the
same general size as possible.
c) Once a 'Moderator' is
chosen, the CNR will decide what 'Divisions' need to be created,
what 'Divisions' will be active or inactive (some are already
active and some may need to be activated or inactivated later), and
'Division Managers' need to be selected by the council to
coordinate the different skilled 'Division' teams. (You may
consider having 'Division Commissions' instead, which would be a
group of three leaders instead of just one, for some of the
'Divisions'. One of the three "commissioners" would be
designated as a figure-head 'Division Manager' and act as the
spokes person, but have equal weight in making 'Division' decisions
as the other two commissioners.)
d) A 'Neighborhood
Representative' can be removed and replaced at anytime by a
two-thirds vote of the Neighborhood that they represent. The
replacement 'Neighborhood Representative' will then be selected by
the Neighborhood by majority vote. The CNR can also by a
two-thirds vote remove a 'Neighborhood Representative' and then the
Neighborhood will choose a new representative by majority vote.
e) Any decision or
regulation made by the 'Divisions', that directly affect the
general public in the community, need to be approved by the
'Council of Neighborhood Representatives' for the decisions to take
effect. Any internal decisions or regulations that deal only
with how a 'Division' is run or how those working in a 'Division'
should do their tasks internally, these only need to be approved by
the leaders of the 'Division'. Any 'Division' decision can be
overruled by the CNR, however.
f) Some larger towns or
cities will probably be made up of many individual 'Communities',
some of which may want to join together in an agreement (made by
the CNRs or comparable ruling body of the communities) to help
support each other by supplying resources or joining together in
certain survival efforts, like having a central medical hospital
with doctors who are specialists, etc. However, be careful
not to federalize (hierarchy levels or layers of government, Ex:
U.S. Federal > State > Local) surrounding communities too
much during this survival time. You may risk creating a
top-heavy government where decisions of life and death are being
made at a top or higher federalism level of the government and not
within your individual 'Community' at the grassroots level with
more direct representation. It would probably be best during
survival to just make agreements to work with surrounding
communities in areas where you can benefit each other without
forming a higher level governmental body above you which could then
possibly make major higher level overriding decisions affecting
your community and the other communities beneath them.
g) The CNR and the
community will follow the general principles of civil liberties and
rights as they are in the United States Constitution (such as due
process of law, eminent domain, trial by jury, etc.) The CNR will
be acting as the equivalent of the Executive, Legislative, and
Judicial powers of the community during survival until a new more
permanent constitution is established. Every two weeks the
whole community population should vote, by a majority vote, to
decide if it is time for a more permanent constitution or agreement
to be made for the community; or to stay with the survival action
plan until conditions have changed and the survival action plan is
no longer needed. Once it is determined by voting to move on
to a more permanent order in the community, by a three-fourths
vote, the general population of the community will approve the new
constitution or agreement, that the CNR will present to be voted
on, before the next two week period would occur. Before the
new more permanent constitution is established, changes in the
temporary "Survival Action Plan" constitution must be approved by
the general population by a three-fourths vote. Also, any
interpretation of the constitution or any other decision by the CNR
can be overruled by the general population by an eight-tenths vote.
(Remember, the 'Neighborhood Representatives' can be replaced at
any time by their respective Neighborhoods.)
Remember "United We Stand, Divided We Fall"
Person > Neighborhoods > Neighborhood Representative >
Council of Neighborhood Representatives > Divisions >
Sub-Divisions > Person
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