Smart Survival Meetup Southeastern PA
Pottstown, PA
This meetup is for people in Southeastern PA who are concerned about America's rising crime rates, sporadic riots & mass shootings, rampant inflation, rising fuel costs & potential food shortages, increased tensions with Russia & China, as well as the erosion of privacy & civil liberties, and signs of instability in our political system that could lead to a constitutional crisis or even a civil war. Given all that's going on, it's smart to learn more about self-defense, personal safety, survival skills, and disaster prepping - just in case...
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The geographic area in Pennsylvania we cover is roughly the triangle defined by Philadelphia, Allentown/Bethlehem, and Lancaster and includes all parts in between (i.e. Media, Main Line, West Chester, King of Prussia, Exton, Downingtown, Coatesville, Lansdale, Doylestown, Quakertown, Kutztown, Phoenixville, Pottstown, Reading, Morgantown, Ephrata, Lebanon, etc). In addition to hosting our own events, we can take advantage of workshops and classes hosted by other groups in our area. Occasionally, we may make roadtrips to events a bit further away in other parts of PA, as well as in DE, MD & NJ.
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NOTE: Unlike most other meetups, I'm only teaching a few of the workshops listed on this page - mostly just the weekly rucks and a few online discussion over Zoom. But there's a lot of skills we can learn from other people in our area. I've combed the internet and listed as many survival-related events in our area as I can find. It's more than I can possibly attend, so don't count on me being there unless I say I will, but I listed everything I could find because I want to find some events that are convenient & affordable for everyone in our group. As you can see from our list of upcoming meetups, we're really lucky to have so many events in our area almost every week! Please RSVP to let me & others know which events you're interested in. And keep in mind, even if you don't see other people in our meetup RSVPing to an event, that does not mean no one is going - these are mostly events hosted by 3rd parties that are widely advertised and almost always have 10+ attendees.
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Our overall goal is to develop skills to help us cope with whatever life may throw in our way, whether that's crime, a natural disaster, economic instability, or political turmoil - or even more mundane things like car trouble, a power outage, or data privacy concerns. Our focus is on helping people not just survive but also \*thrive\* in uncertain times. We can do this by aligning the way we prepare for potential emergencies with our general self-improvement goals. When it's done the right way, training in self-defense skills can also help you get in better physical shape, build self-discipline & self-confidence, make you more situationally aware, and teach you to set personal boundaries & verbally deescalate conflicts. Learning some wilderness survival skills dovetails well with outdoor recreational activities like hiking, camping, hunting & fishing, all of which are beneficial by getting you more active outdoors which is healthy & relieves stress, and they also make you more aware of the natural world we depend upon. Similarly, sensible prepping dovetails well with the growing trends toward "frugal living" and "do-it-yourself" (DIY), and it can help you become more self-reliant and better at problem-solving, teach you ways to save money & diversify your investments, and give you some skills that are essential in a disaster scenario but can also help with regular household repairs & car maintenance. Coming to our meetups will also help you meet other people in our area who share many of your goals & interests.
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As a group, we'll do our best to help each other remain vigilant & prepared while not succumbing to the paranoia and conspiracy theories we sometimes see among the "doomsday preppers" or the Rambo fantasies of the mall-ninja types who amass huge amounts of "tacticool" gear they don't know how to use. Some of our group discussions will help with this by providing some stats & information to help us distinguish realistic threats from highly unlikely or unrealistic scenarios.
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If you'd like to get in shape, learn some self-defense and survival skills, and discuss some realistic ways to protect yourself and your family physically, legally & financially, please join us!
