Urban GO! Bag Pack Lists

Southern Alberta - Foothills and Rockies

Time to share more lessons learned from the 2013 Southern Alberta Floods. This time, it is in regards to what items to pack in your GO! Bag. Despite dystopian fantasies of TEOTWAWKI or WROL; most evacuations faced by the majority of the population will be relatively short in duration and you will return home, at some point. To this end, a packing list that reflects this reality should be published.

In my book, The G.O.O.D. Plan - Get Out Of Dodge; I am as guilty as many other writers of emergency preparedness topics, I too made many of my lists based on worse-case scenarios. This was not done with evil intent; merely, to be ready for the darkest days. However, when evacuated due to the flood waters of 2013 we learned that having at least one outfit for work would have been an important item to include in the GO! Bag. Not all emergency events result in your place of employment being closed for the duration of your evacuation. Yet, when you are evacuated you cannot just swing by your home to collect clothes for work. 

These updated packing lists reflect that many folks will be evacuated for normal events - floods, fires, gas leaks or power outages. The evacuations may impact where you live but not necessarily where you work. Further, if these items are packed in a rolling suitcase (carry-on sized) or in a daypack; whether you are evacuating or just rushing to the airport for a weekend get-away being pre-packed will come in handy most days. 

The purpose of a GO! Bag was never to burden families with excessive financial costs to be ready to go. A spare suitcase, daypack or duffle bag with enough clothes and basic items to give you a starting point if you were evacuated and all you had time to do was grab one item as you departed your home in the event of an emergency. When you speak with those who have lost everything when they fled their home during any emergency event, the one common point you hear is, "I wish I had something that was mine." and "I wish we could have saved at least some of our photographs." With high capacity USB drives or hard drives, entire photo collections can be stored digitally, as well as, copies of all important family documents - birth certificates, passports, driver's licenses, diplomas and insurance documents. Starting over from absolutely nothing is very difficult. This challenge can be lessened by keeping a GO! Bag ready packed. 

Yours in Preparedness!

V.A.M.

Use in combination with the Priority Evacuation Checklist: Evac List

Briden Solutions Open House 10 Aug 2019

Pyramid Mountain, Wells Grey Provincial Park, 2007

The GOOD Plan at Briden Solutions Open House (10 Aug 2019)

Once again, I was honoured to attend the Open House at Briden Solutions and to have copies of The G.O.O.D. Plan available. This year's Open House occurred on Saturday 10 August 2019 from 1000 to about 1500hrs. Thanks Dwight for letting me be a part of your Open House.

This year's Open House included axe throwing, food cooking demonstrations (and tasting!!), lunch and a personal defence demonstration. Although, weather was not as sunny as hoped the crowd was about 40 - 50 persons. A few new faces in the crowd yet many familiar faces, too. 

Briden Solutions is your local supplier of food products with long storage life; freeze-dried meal pouches from Mountain House and Peak; water filtration and storage systems; and JetBoil stoves. So, before adding profits to Amazon; check out your local supplier: www.bridensolutions.ca

At the Open House The GOOD Plan - Priority Evacuation Checklist was handed out to interested attendees. The checklist was well received and all whom I spoke with thought it was a good idea to have. Copies of the Priority Evacuation Checklist are available for personal download from:  satasco2017/resources . Here is the link to Blog Post: evacuation-checklist-appendix-n . 

Until next time....Support local business!!

V.A.M.

Evacuation Checklist - Appendix N for The G.O.O.D. Plan (Revised Edition)

Johnston Creek (July 2013) - K-Country, Alberta

Front

Rear

A thousand apologies to all those who have suggested that The GOOD Plan should have a quick reference sheet for evacuations. I did hear you and I fully agreed with all of you on this point.

Please, allow me to unveil the Prioritised Evacuation Checklist. This checklist will become Appendix N in the revised edition of The G.O.O.D. Plan - Get Out Of Dodge. It could be a full year before the revisions are completed.  

A copy in PDF will be available for free download for personal use at the SATAS Co website (temporarily hosted here): wixsite.com/satasco2017/resources

How I suggest you use this checklist would be to download a copy. Fill in your information on the contact information areas. Then, laminate the checklist and keep it near where you store you Evac Pack/BOB/GO Bag or use self-adhesive Velcro to stick it behind the front door or on the back of your front door. This way you have your evac checklist right where you need it when you have been notified to evacuate your home. 

I hope you find this checklist helpful.

Until next time....stay ready to evacuate, this could save your life.

Mountainman. 

Veteran's Business Boot Camp - A G.O.O.D. Learning Experience

OP CS-47 UNPROFOR OP Harmony Former Republic of Yugoslavia 1994 (Photo by V.A. McMillan)

The Student on Day Five 

I recently had an opportunity to be a part of the launching of the Veteran's Business Boot Camp (VBBC) hosted by the Canadian Legacy Project (canadianlegacy.org) and delivered at Mount Royal University (www.mtroyal.ca) under the expert instruction by Judy McMillan-Evans (www.mcmillan-evans.ca) and Erin Melnychuk. Before I get into more details about this outstanding program and opportunity; I want to give a very big shout out to Mr. Dave Howard and the Canadian Legacy Project!!! THANK YOU!! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn more about effectively operating a business. I will do my best to take this knowledge and create a success.

The Veteran's Business Boot Camp (VBBC) is an intense, 5-day/40 hour entrepreneur program that helps the student take a potential business idea and work through the planning process, via a business model canvas (business-model-canvas). You are given the tools necessary to expand your business model canvas into your business plan, without crushing you under the weight of developing a 20 to 40 page business plan right-out-of-the-chute. Whether the student has been working on their business for 10 minutes or 10 years; there is a wealth of knowledge that will be shared with you and you will come away in a better position, with a better understanding of what it will take to turn your idea into a successful business. After breaking the ice and meeting you classmates; you dive right into the course material and go through exercises to identify your core values and those of your business before developing concise statements that will drive your business: Business Description, Business Vision & Mission Statements, and Business Goals. This foundation wraps up with developing your Elevator Pitch, you have 30 seconds - sell your company before the doors open! And that is how this intense week starts.

Veteran's Business Boot Camp - 24 to 28 June 2019 

The G.O.O.D. Plan - Get Out Of Dodge

VBBC Day-Two to Day-Four expose the students to need-to-know information, as well as, pitfalls to avoid. The business stuff that means the most but many try to avoid: accounting, finance, legal and marketing. 

The information delivered in VBBC is a pleasant mix of classroom delivery, working in pairs and small groups. This is not a dry, boring course that seems to drag-on forever. Learning was very dynamic and included guest speakers and lessons learned by our instructors. The MRU campus in general and specifically, the Roderick Mah Centre for Continuous Learning was very well designed to allow small groups to conduct their small group activities near the assigned classroom and still provide reasonable privacy to get ideas brainstormed within the required time limits. The week's last formal instruction was presented by guest speakers from the financial industry, giving solid advice on what lenders are looking for when they are reviewing a business proposal requesting funding. Information that is invaluable to new entrepreneurs and difficult to assign a monetary value to. Priceless comes to mind.

The week ends with all the students presenting their business to the rest of the class. This is an opportunity to receive feedback on how to make the presentation more impactful or what other areas to explore to reach more customers or whom to network with to be even more successful.

I used this week to evaluate which direction The G.O.O.D. Plan - Get Out Of Dodge, should go in. I am once again motivated to complete the e-Book conversion, which is about 30% complete at this time. I am also exploring the creation of a course, to help teach others how to plan their personal or family evacuation. By extension, an instruct the instructor course to expand training delivery in more areas in Canada or around the world. 

I will continue to utilize The GOOD Plan Blog to keep each of you informed of changes and opportunities that will be developing in the near future. I will attach a signup window to the blog, so you can be notified each time a new post is posted.

To my fellow Veterans, if you have the opportunity to attend the VBBC, I highly recommend it. It will be time well invested in your own future.

Success comes from within,

VAM.

Update: New Course 29 Oct - 01 Nov 2019 in Ottawa, ON: VBBC #2

Book Signing: The Saga of Eagles & Wolves: The Defenders of Dolpheim at Chapter's Chinook 16 Mar 2019

Exchanging Signed Copies!! 

On the 16th of March 2019, I met up with Bruce Nickel, the author of The Saga of Eagles & Wolves: The Defenders of Dolpheim at Chapter's Bookstore in Chinook Mall, Calgary, AB to support his book signing.

Bruce and I have known each other from our service days in the PPCLI, 1st Bn based at CFB Calgary, before we shipped out to keep the peace in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. I was very impressed when I learned that Bruce had written a book and I purchased a copy for my eReader right away. It was a great read. (Here is the review of Bruce's book I posted on Mountainman's Mantra: barbarians-kicking-roman-legion-ass) 

When I learned Bruce was having a book signing, I wanted to visit, show my support and exchange signed books that we had discussed doing previously. See pictures below.

I know Bruce's book will be very successful and I eagerly await the next chapter in the saga to be published and released.

Thanks, Bruce, I will treasure my signed copy. 

V.A.M.

PS - Support Your Local Authors, Buy a Book!!

Signing The GOOD Plan for Bruce

Bruce Signing a copy of The Defenders of Dolpheim

To Success!! Cheers!!