Hi Folks,

This will be brief:

ANY preparation will be observed by other people. Noise, supplies, blackouts, even healthy faces will be observed.

I understand I cannot protect myself by my self, I need other people.

Working with a community to ensure that other people are prepared also, is my best protection.

I need suggestions as to how to mobilise a community that is aware but not yet acting in any focussed way.

I am looking for suggestions for both mitigation strategies and contingency plans for moderate density urban areas.

Thanx in advance

-- Bob Barbour (r.barbour@waikato.ac.nz), November 02, 1998

Answers

How about a Y2K awareness block party? Or maybe have a barbeque and bring in a speaker. Shucks, just talk up Y2K with your neighbors - they may be more interested than you think.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), November 02, 1998.

You will want to look at everything you depend on from state, local, and federal government and see if you can get by without big brother and fill the needs from the neighborhood resources. This includes energy, security, communications, agriculture, medical, ... the list goes on and on. Who knows, you might even have to collect a tax from the members to finance these things (perish the thought!)

For an example of planned communities, see the Eco-Village in Michigan at http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/8095/main.htm or the EarthHaven in No. Carolina at http://www.earthaven.org/homepage.htm

-- Jon (jonmiles@pacbell.net), November 02, 1998.

A web page I frequently visit that deals specifically with the issues of the impact of Y2K on communities is found at

http://www.co-intelligence.org/y2k_breakthrough.html

Might want to visit there and browse.

-- JoB (jbabinsky@theriver.com), November 02, 1998.

Bob, I suggest you choose 3-4 good people as a core, then have each of them select 3-4 more and grow from there. I second the advice to check out the Co-Intelligence site. It's the best!

Also, you can find a list of things "Ten Questions for Communities to Answer" here:

http://www.ccia.com/~sminarik/prepare2000.htm/9.htm

-- Faith Weaver (faith-weaver@usa.net), November 02, 1998.

Y2K goes multi-level! Town hall meetings are important. Get the local government and utilities in a forum where interested people can attend. Our first one was in July w/200 people, second in Sept. 500 people, next one this month ???

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), November 03, 1998.

Bob, I just started prepping my town for Y2k. I downloaded some great flyer's off of The Cassandra Project's web site:

http://cassandraproject.org/y2kmaterials.html

(easy to understand and not too frightening to start with). I dropped the flyers off first (so of get their feet wet first) then I an on the Town Meeting agenda for next week.

I have some ideas of how I will procede and I would be happy to share this info (offlist) with others and then we can all put together something that works and then we can drop our final product back here for general approval.

Anyone interested in being included in the discussion can e-mail me at Levins@csps.com All final results from the discussion/planning will be re-posted here.

I sincerely believe that the *only* way that our families will be safe and secure during Y2k will be to help alert and educate the communities we live in.

Steve L.

-- Steve L. (levins@csps.com), November 03, 1998.

see novel "Lucifer's Hammer" (novel) -- by, I think Pournelle and/or Niven

-- hh (hello@u.com), November 03, 1998.

How about general emergency preparedness with information on Y2K? Sometimes people can relate much better to preparing for something they can understand than for something they don't...

-- Karen Cook (browsercat@hotmail.com), November 03, 1998.

The reference from JoB is very good and merits some elaboration and reposting.

Linked from: Important Y2K-Breakthrough Articles, compiled by Tom Atlee

http://www.co- intelligence.org/Y2K_articles.html

The following excerpts are from: http://www.co-intelligence.org/y2k- communityresp1.html

Why community-based responses to the Year 2000 Problem make more sense than individual survivalism, by Tom Atlee

Excerpts...

Survivalist and Community-based approaches

Perhaps the most compelling argument for community-based approaches to preparing for the Year 2000 crisis is this: The more you and your neighbors invest your energy in a community response, the more synergy you can create. If four people who are each straining to move their own heavy table get together, they can move all four tables quickly and efficiently. That's synergy. Together, a community is able to do more things that help the individuals in it, than those individuals can do by themselves. You waste less energy getting in each other's way and defending yourselves against each other. All of you together become greater than all of you individually. The more you each act to support a community response, the more powerful that response becomes, and thus more able to help each of you.

In contrast, the more you and your neighbors pursue a survivalist response -- the more you invest in strategies that protect only you, your family, or those close to you -- the more dysergy you create together, and the weaker your collective response becomes. Like tens of thousands of cars gridlocked on a highway or two kids fighting over a toy, everybody's efforts added together produce less progress than would be possible if they were alone. And we must face the fact that we are not alone; we are inescapably embedded in a society with millions of other people, all of whom face the same threat we do. The more survivalism there is going on in the society around us, the more our individual actions will start to undermine each other. ....

Don't people naturally rally to help each other?

Some people suggest that pro-social community responses are natural and inevitable. They point to countless floods and earthquakes in which neighbors acted together spontaneously to meet community needs.

I would love to share that viewpoint. However, such events are different from a widespread Year 2000 breakdowns in at least three very significant ways: 1) they are local, 2) they are temporary, 3) they happen with little or no warning and 4) they are "acts of God." A Year 2000 breakdown may well be 1) worldwide, 2) long-term, 3) largely foreseen and 4) created by humans, opening the door to blame and scapegoating. There may be no larger healthy society upon which a traumatized community can call for help. As more people are threatened by deprivation, their loved ones will naturally rally more to meet their needs than those of their neighbors. In order to avoid fragmentation, the whole community's needs must be taken into account ahead of time, by the whole community, and collective action taken to plan for contingencies. Such a collaborative community undertaking creates an environment in which pro-social responses can more easily surface and sustain themselves in a struggling population. ...

-- Jon (jonmiles@pacbell.net), November 03, 1998.

Bravo Bob! I have not ever seen the "versus" of survival...community or personal..to me they are intrinsically and irrevokably linked.

I vote for the block party and barbeque... with table of printed information about Y2K....I am urging my city council to let me infiltrate the Neighborhood Watch organization in my community to help mobilize communites...hope it works...they are cutting their noses off to spite their faces if they do not do this...

Now that I have a few extra dollars to use I'm going to print pamphlets for distribution in all public places..and I'm thinking about standing at the local farmer's market and passing them out.

Again...Go Bob!!!!!

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), November 03, 1998.