Emergency Preparedness Plans for Family Meeting

by Anonymous

My family is scattered around the city. I am preparing what I can, but we want a plan to come together at one safe place, if possible, in the event of an extended emergency. We have chosen the location already.

My question is this: I want to have a family meeting to convince some of our family, whose heads are in the sand, that there is a need to prepare. Do you have any guidelines for such a family meeting plan, what to talk about, how to begin the talk, what to hand out, such as survival lists, etc? Do you have any advice for convincing them that this need exists? I have already talked to them to some extent, but they haven't seen the urgency and don't seem to be taking it seriously. Any advice? Thank you.

Comments for
Emergency Preparedness Plans for Family Meeting

Click here to add your own comments

Ohh, those relatives and in-laws
by: Anonymous

Isn't family great? So many different people and skills rolled into one. I think preparedness is paramount, my brother thinks I'm a nut.

Have a dinner. Use a birthday or holiday as an excuse. Write up a letter. Basic emergency necessities and procedures and meeting places and phone numbers are all you need at this point. Hand it out at this dinner in a casual and happy manner. Don't push it, those willing to cooperate will discuss it. The naysayers won't and you can't force it. If an emergency ever occurs they will remember it and contact those who they know can help them.

Respect their right to resist. You are as much the nut as they are. Pray for them and perhaps they are praying for you.

Emergency Preparedness Tips for the Family
by: Admin

Dear Anonymous,

I've thought a lot about your dilemma. It sounds like you at least have a start - a place to meet in case of an emergency.

As for the family meeting, I would try to make it light and maybe make it into a game night. Have a potluck dinner first, then create a Bingo game using subjects/words having to do with emergency preparedness. You could then make copies for everyone of the checklists from this website. Hopefully, that will give them the encouragement they need to begin their own preparedness plans.

P.S. Have you signed up for the Family Survival Planning Alert so you can have access to all our checklists? If not, you can do so on the right-hand side of this page, or the checklists page above.