Do you have any idea how much of
your prepper knowledge is actually recorded in your head and nowhere else? I’m
talking about details that you think are common knowledge but aren’t actually
common among those in your survival party. If you are the key member of the
group—the one who has done the lion’s share of planning and training, it’s
likely that others don’t know as much as you think they know or that they will
be able to remember as much as you think they will. If you drop off your twig
unexpectedly or suffer a mentally-incapacitating illness or accident prior or
during a SHTF event, that lack of knowledge among the rest of the group may be
their unforeseen Achilles heel.
A recent change in my health, in
addition to my advancing age, convinced me that I needed to view my survival
preparations from the perspective of not being there to carry out the plan as
the primary leader. Would my family be able to put to use all that I had
planned for? Of what value are decades of planning and preparations on my part,
if I have failed at passing on sufficient knowledge for them to survive without
me?
A surprising number of survivalists have
military or government employment backgrounds. This topic is nothing new to
them. They are already aware of the central role of operating procedures or
operating instructions in government organizations. The same is true of those
who have worked in civilian organizations such as law enforcement, hospitals,
and in industries that handle hazardous materials or carry out functions that,
if done improperly, can get someone hurt or killed.
If you’ve been around operating
instructions in those settings, they probably left a bad taste. You have
memories of the excessive bureaucratic nonsense and overkill that is invariably
the product of governments and large organizations. However, you are in charge
now. You can compose operating instructions that are meaningful to you and your
loved ones or survival group.
This blog post has been written to
help you understand why you need operating instructions, what good instructions
contain, and how to write and maintain your own set of instructions. A short
trip to the office supply store and some head-scratching time can produce a
good set of operating instructions. The result is that it will minimize the
impact of your loss to the party, should something unforeseen occur, such as
you being separated from the group. Reviewing them with your family or group
and securing the collection in a common area will give you the peace of mind
that comes from knowing that the ship won’t go down if it loses the captain.
Let’s sell you on the idea by
choosing a common topic area of survival preps— emergency water supplies.
You’ve done your homework. You read and studied and then purchased what you
needed to process and store water for hard times. You now have a solid
collection of storage containers filled
with potable water, and you have the tools required to treat the water and
access it when needed. Job well done! However, if the information in your head
is not also stored so that others can access it, your diligent preps may suffer
a potentially fatal and certainly inconvenient end result. If all the knowledge
that remains in your head remains only in your head, your spouse and children
as well as any others who may be depending upon that water are left on their
own.
Are we making too much of this? Not
at all. Having great storage containers filled with water is of questionable
worth, if the group that needs the water does not know where they are stored.
Are there items critical to purification or filtration? Where, what, when, and
how? Sure, you told some of them or all of them. Or did you? Do they even
remember? If you stored water, was it safe to drink to begin with? What date
did you fill the containers? Where is that special tool needed to open the
containers without damage to the container itself?
These are the sort of details that
are just as important as the physical water itself. You spent many hours and
many dollars putting your plan into place. It would be a shame to see the plan
crippled by something as simple as a bit of paper that could serve as a
reference and resource.
As much as I don’t miss the
overarching bureaucratic mess of keeping up with all too many “OI’s” when I was
in the military, I did learn some valuable things. An old sergeant once chewed
me out for being such an idiot as to assume something. He said, “Do you know
what ASSUME stands for, Dummy? ASSUME is making an A** out of U and ME.” Don’t
assume anyone knows what you know or will remember what you have taught them.
A good operating instruction should
be written to enable the reader to carry on the activity area covered in the
instruction without you. There are some areas that are more important to cover
than other areas. This list is not all-inclusive. Think of it as a minimum. You
can add other information, of course, but here are some suggested minimums,
drawn from instructions common to military organizations.
Title: In our example, this would be something like “Emergency
Water Storage and Purification.”
Purpose Statement: Yes, you really need to cover this. Don’t assume everyone
who needs to know the information is clear about the purpose of the
instruction. In our example, it might be something like, “This instruction
covers the amount and location of water currently stored at our home, in our
vehicles, and at our safe location. It also covers the purification methods,
chemicals, and equipment needed to purify water dispensed from the containers
and to fill them. The sources we are planning to use to obtain water locally,
while traveling, and at the safe location are listed, as are vendors and
sources for replacement supplies.”
Explanation of Terms: You might readily understand what a bung wrench is. Don’t
assume your spouse or teenager knows. When you use the term “chlorine powder”
you need to explain if it is labeled by another chemical name, such as calcium
hypochlorite. To identify the terms you need to explain, walk yourself mentally
through the process as though you were explaining it all to a non-prepper. This
list of terms and their explanations is where you can also make things
absolutely clear. “Blue storage container” might seem obvious, but if you have
used different sizes and that info is important, the explanation might be
better as, “Water storage container. Blue plastic. Twenty-eight, 5 gallon
cubes. In basement at safe spot location.”
Responsibilities: This is where you can use the operating instruction to
serve as a diagram and flow chart as well as assign duties. In our example,
this might designate your two older sons as those charged with checking the
freshness of stored water and replenishing it at specific intervals of time. In
a very real sense, think of it also as a letter of last instructions—using your
position as leader to pass the torch to someone else. Who is to take over the
primary role in both maintaining the instruction and supervising the knowledge
area and task?
Policy: This is where you can discuss in detail the “how, when, and
where” of the subject. It’s where you delineate specifics and address multiple
locations, or variances in the policy. A good instruction will address all
locations, tools, supplies, and procedures used or needed. How is the water to
be disinfected? How often? With what? How much of the chemical? Where are the
supplies and tools stored? This is the meat of the operating instruction.
Imagine yourself instructing someone in how to carry out the task by making a
YouTube sort of how-to video. “Policy” would be the transcript of that video.
References and Attachments: This is the place where you can list important information
that the reader can go to or needs for further information than what is
provided in the policy. In our example, references might include a cross
reference to a household inventory list of all supplies. It might include a
list of vendors of water supplies or a material safety data sheet concerning
the chemicals that are used. Owner’s or technical manuals for equipment, for
example, might also be included. You may find it handy to make those references
that are not other operating instructions, themselves, attachments to the
instruction.
Date of Instruction and Review: This is where you indicate the creation date of the
operating instruction. This is more important than usually realized. It tells
the reader the currency of the information. Imagine picking up a book that
looks like current information and then noticing that it was written fifty
years ago and has been updated. You might have doubts. You would have doubts.
You should have an area that will
allow you to indicate that you have reviewed it and the date you most recently
reviewed it. You should also indicate if you made changes. If you are listing
changes, it is likewise critical that you cross out the information changed in
the instruction. You want to insure that it is clear what is no longer current
or to be followed. You can write in the new information, legibly, rather than
edit and reprint the instruction, although the neat-freaks among us might
choose to revise a saved electronic copy that was used to print out the hard
copy.
Frequency of review depends on how
critical the information is or how often it is subject to change or updating.
Once per year is usually sufficient. It is not so often to become burdensome or
skipped, and not too infrequent so as to miss changes that need to be changed
or updated. An exception is when you make changes to preps that need to be
updated right away. For example, if you just changed your method of water
purification; that is something important enough to justify making the changes
right away. It would be hard to purify water with supplies or equipment you no
longer possess or intuitively to know how to use new supplies or equipment.
Location(s) of Instructions: The purpose of this area is to handle the situation of
multiple copies of the instruction. Perhaps you have a second copy of the
operating instruction binder at your safe location or a copy in your bug-out
vehicle. Listing them here is critical, so that you don’t overlook a copy when
you are changing any information in the instruction. Keep in mind that multiple
copies are not always better that one. The more is not the merrier; they all
have to be kept current, with none overlooked. The fewer copies, the more
likely you will not overlook updating all copies and that the info the reader
has at the time of need is current and correct.
Log: This is my own preferred last item in the instruction, not
a normal inclusion in military operating instructions. It is simply an area
that I can annotate my thoughts and date them. “Reviewed but no time to update
yet. I think the information on chlorine use might be out of date, or even
incorrect. I need to get this information ASAP.” This is then followed by a
date and initials. It lets the reader know that you were in doubt and had plans
but had not gotten around to carrying them out. It allows for adding important
information short of a formal review. It gives an opportunity to add or modify to
some extent without formal review and editing.
From the Survival Blog
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