Fill me in folks

[armydawg11b]

Hi I posted that I am new and will be PCSing to GA. soon. I was hoping someone could give me a general description of how many member we have here in our chapter. Since I will be stationed at Ft. Benning I would also like to know if anyone is close to there, or actually there. I am an avid hunter, fisherman, and general outdoors man. I also have a huge love of tactical, self-defense, and security training. Me and zombiesoldier01 served in Iraq together, and share a lot of the same training, not the "big Army" general stuff either. We were both members of the Colorado chapter, and both disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm for training and general group activities up here. So if anyone wants to get in on some training when I get there let me know.
I was also going to ask a question that can become some what controversial, just know its not to start crap, or undermine any leadership of our chapter. I would love to hear our leaderships thoughts. So here we go. Has anyone thought about, pitched, or even dreamed about "sub-chapters" within our own chapter? They don't have to have their own forum or anything, It's would just help to connect members, increase activity, and set up a great "command channel" in case of these "events" we all talk about on here. This could also allow for us to be much more effective, mobile, and generally awesome. If you know of any of this stuff already mentioned on a previous thread let me know and sorry to waste space.
I can't wait to meet with some members, and have some great times. Have a great day mates!

[BEFO]

Well, by your name I can see you are 11B, great, I love good Infantry and we need folks that have good advanced training.

Your question was one I posed a while ago due to the large geographic area in Georgia. There is even a thread here somewhere (I will find it and bump it up) that suggested we divide the state up into "squads" or "districts" based on the official Georgia State Militia districts listed in Georgia Law (I think it is six maybe?).

But you bring up a good point, how do we sub-divide into more usable units and support each other?

I am going to just form an "Augusta" or "CSRA" (Central Savannah River Area) "Squad" that will be members of ZS Chapter 16 for admin purposes but we will drill and train independently on a smaller level in our area.

I mean our numbers are so low that we are just the size of a fire-team, but once I move back to Augusta in a few weeks and we become active I hope to recruit at least ten folks in the area (actual squad size element) and then just expand from there. Once a group reached a certain level, it makes sense to create a chapter, and I see chapters as being maybe a Platoon sized element (40 folks), but in larger areas maybe even a Light company (two platoon sized elements).

Having fun training, raising awareness on survival issues and preparedness are the key elements I see to having a good ZS group.

The area you are moving to is amazing, it has everything you will need to fulfill all your fishing, hunting and outdoor needs.

Please feel free to contact me directly, I would love to come and visit the home of the AIRBORNE again.

Brad

[Bayjove]

Well crap, I thought I responded to this days ago. Sigh.

armydawg, it's not controversial at all. Asking questions is welcomed so that you can get answers! My response is long and I'm sorry for that but I want to be thorough and don't want to discourage anyone. In fact, I want to be encouraging. Read on!

Regarding sub-chapters for those interested, it's a no-go. If you read back on past threads there once was a time when folks were talking about creating sub-chapters or squads, but that was before 1) ZSC-016 got its stuff together and 2) I think before the new chapter forming policies were put in place by HQ. As it is, we really need to keep our chapter intact and limited to a two-hour radius with no sub-chapters or squads. I think the new policy from HQ is a good one because usually if you get further than two hours away a group tends to splinter and not have as good communication with each other. The point of us interacting in person as we do is so that we can have a stronger sense of community and not just share our interests here on a message board. If we have sub-chapters and squads, it sort of defeats the purpose.

More to the point, a chapter has a lot of protocol to follow also. For every event we have I have to submit a request form and then a debriefing afterwards, including member meetings and we also had to fill out paperwork and do a qualifying event just to get this chapter back up and running. If folks started functioning as an independent "arm" of a chapter, having their own meetings and events, they wouldn't be submitting the required paperwork because only chapter officers do that.

HOWEVER, if you have just three people in a certain area of Georgia that isn't covered by ZSC-016 chapter and you feel like it's too far to regularly come out to our functions, by all means you can start a new chapter. It used to be that chapters were state-specific (hence the discussion of squads and such last year), but that's not the case anymore--a state can have multiple chapters if they are two hours or so apart. In fact we encourage folks to start a chapter for those reasons above so that members can feel more a sense of local community, more easily get together, and educate more communities on preparedness. If you are going to use the ZS name for events or meetings you really do have to have a chapter and as such have to fill out the paperwork etc. mentioned above.

When we reformed ZSC-016, we were told to pick a location for our name and we chose Metro Atlanta for a few reasons. Most of the active members were in this area and also because Metro Atlanta is ginormous we figured that with the two-hour radius rule we could include a lot of people if we went from the edges of what's technically considered Metro Atlanta. But obviously some were left out, specifically those in the Savannah area that fell far outside our range. I made a map back in March of active forum members' locations and other than the Savannah folks, I think everyone who was active fell in our range.

Obviously now there are some more people, both new and older but more active, especially in the more southern part of Georgia. I know we can't expect you to come all the way up here for meetings and activities and I think that you should totally consider starting a chapter down there yourselves. If you want to start an Augusta chapter please do contact me and I'll help you as much as I can to get it started. I can direct you to the paperwork and to the right people to talk to. I think it would be great to have another chapter.

I am sorry about the no sub-chapters thing but it's just how ZS HQ has it set up now and I hope you understand!

[MaconCJ7]

The lack of subchapters by no means limits your interaction with other members to the official meetings either. If you and a few other live in close proximity and have the opportunity to hang out more and do more stuff together, then by all means, do it. It's just asked that you invite the rest of the chapter as well for any sort of organized activity. If you want to have a "introduction" party with the idea of recruiting more folk,get with chapter officers and try to get it done according to HQ policy.

Zombie Squad is an official charity organization, as such, there is certain protocol that needs to be followed to keep the organization within certain limits set by law, as well as, to keep the name in good standing with law enforcement and local communities. We are all about having a good time and spreading education as much as can be, but, there is a standard in accordance with ZS standards. Being military, you know all about proper protocol and shtuff.

If you and your friends get together to go pounding through the woods working on small unit tactics or whatnot, and also happen to be ZS members, nothing stops you from doing so, so long as you do it as friends, not as ZS members. Same theory as supporting political activity as a military member, so long as you do so as an individual, not as a military member.

[BEFO]

Laurel,

I have been out of the loop for quite some time but now that I am getting back stateside I see that the issue has been sorted. We will form our own Chapter for the CSRA and of course will support you all any chance we can. Sorry for the confusion.

It makes more sense that way

@ MaconCJ7, "small unit tactics?" Not sure where that comes from but no thanks, I get enough of that at work. ZS for me is a fun outlet but is doesn't hurt to have folks with good training to help with training folks on first aid, gun safety and preparedness.

[Ruddie]

Well, I'm back from a long hiatus... I'm around the Cartersville area and am looking at getting back into the groove on here.

[mystic_1]

Regarding sub-chapters for those interested, it's a no-go. If you read back on past threads there once was a time when folks were talking about creating sub-chapters or squads, but that was before 1) ZSC-016 got its stuff together and 2) I think before the new chapter forming policies were put in place by HQ. As it is, we really need to keep our chapter intact and limited to a two-hour radius with no sub-chapters or squads. I think the new policy from HQ is a good one because usually if you get further than two hours away a group tends to splinter and not have as good communication with each other. The point of us interacting in person as we do is so that we can have a stronger sense of community and not just share our interests here on a message board. If we have sub-chapters and squads, it sort of defeats the purpose.

More to the point, a chapter has a lot of protocol to follow also. For every event we have I have to submit a request form and then a debriefing afterwards, including member meetings and we also had to fill out paperwork and do a qualifying event just to get this chapter back up and running. If folks started functioning as an independent "arm" of a chapter, having their own meetings and events, they wouldn't be submitting the required paperwork because only chapter officers do that.

HOWEVER, if you have just three people in a certain area of Georgia that isn't covered by ZSC-016 chapter and you feel like it's too far to regularly come out to our functions, by all means you can start a new chapter. It used to be that chapters were state-specific (hence the discussion of squads and such last year), but that's not the case anymore--a state can have multiple chapters if they are two hours or so apart. In fact we encourage folks to start a chapter for those reasons above so that members can feel more a sense of local community, more easily get together, and educate more communities on preparedness. If you are going to use the ZS name for events or meetings you really do have to have a chapter and as such have to fill out the paperwork etc. mentioned above.

I just wanted to chime in and quote the above because it sums up the situation perfectly. Chapters may not subdivide into sub-chapters, if there's a clear need to split the group up into two entities than a new chapter should be formed. Even the two-hour-separation is more of a rule of thumb. We've placed chapters closer together than that if the population distribution and geography called for it.

We would love to see another chapter get up and running in the Savannah area! It looks to me like there's enough interest. Remember that launching a chapter only requires three paid members holding a successful charity event. Events do not need to be huge and complex, you just need to show that you can draw in members, and plan and execute an event.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to email them to Chapters@zombiehunters.org and one of the Chapter Volunteer will be happy to help you out!

cheers
mystic_1

[Bayjove]

BEFO that's great if you want to start a chapter! Augusta does seem closer to Savannah than we are and I've felt bad that the Savannah folks are so far away from us. There may also be others between here and Augusta that could be closer to you and can feel more included, too.

Like Mystic said, you can contact Chapters for info--they are very helpful! And since we went through the process here, if you have any questions along the way feel free to ask and I can help you as best I can!

Maybe we could some day get our chapters together for a fun outing or something. And also I know it's far but if you want to come out and participate in DragonCon ZS festivities we'd really love to have you here

[armydawg11b]

Thanks for all the responses guys, glad to see we have officers that know the rules and protocol. I think having a few chapters in a certain state is also the right way to go. This will allow for more mobility anyway. If our entire state where to suffer massive storm, we could volunteer to help with our separate chapters areas.
When I get there I want to of course scout out me some bug out locations. I was also thinking of setting up a BOL system, scouted by members ( on legal areas of land of course). Let's say you're in savannah when the SHTF, and your from ATL. You would have a location to go to previously scouted by another member at least that way you have some sort of comfort in the location you go to. you wont be totally in the dark about the location you pick. I am sure most of you know what geocaching is. We could also have some caches set in these places to also help any stranded members. I know this is kinda off subject but just an example of what could be done with separate chapters. I am also going to start a separate thread on this. So if anyone is interested in doing something like this please let us know.
Again I want to say thanks for filling me in on the rules and protocol concerning chapters. You all have a great day.