A leader's guide to work crews

You will find new tribe members to enlarge your community, however the problem won't be finding them, but refusing to allow them to join. You're going to have to be judicious about who can stay and who cannot. It would be great to help everyone, but that's impossible. There will be too many untrained people with zero skills of value. While you can train people quickly, in the interim they're going through supplies rapidly, and it will be a long time before harvest and preserving the harvest.

You need ramrods, dependable people who both know how to do things, can teach how to do things, can communicate well, and motivate people. The last thing a leader needs is to micro-manage an entire operation.

Water: This is your first and most vital need. You must have rainwater operations into cisterns and wells. I've discussed both. It's hard heavy labor at the beginning, for you need carts made, then strong people to haul the carts and containers there, and then safely back. They need to be trained on how to communicate with strangers, and those wanting to join up, and negotiating with property owners in case they have to cross it. They'll be armed of course.

Crops: Some will be master gardeners. They will run it, track harvests and seed savings. They report on supplies they need. Many children can help here after-school.

Salvage: Post-collapse, you need crews to go into abandoned places to harvest materials and haul them back. You need clever people who can rapidly assess the value of what's laying around, but also street-wise about defending it and safely returning. They strip everything from only certain homes, or else incur the wrath of the construction folks.

Construction: Highly trained clever MacGuyvers. They make it work. They find a way. Carpenters, mechanics, electricians, electronics, pipefitters, etc.

Traders: these people understand the value of salvaged goods plus are great salespeople for selling excess goods. They know people who are contacts in other tribes. They are persuasive and cunning.

Gunsmiths: These folks know how to repair, alter, rebuild, reload, etc.

Livestock: These people love animals, are very insightful, don't waste feed or materials, good at birthing, likely a vet is needed here.

Security: Law enforcement and soldiers

Crafts: These people know skills very well. They can harvest things that others don't know about: healing herbs, wild edibles, times of harvest, identify trees for lumber, notice changes in animal movement. A lot of artisans here too. Pottery makers. Ink makers. Book binders and paper makers.

Docs and midwives: most of the time, few are sick but they're healing them and doing PREVENTATIVE CARE and managing dwindling medicines, the rest of the time they're teaching adults and teens so everyone is cross trained in first aid

Hunters/Trappers: a handful who bring in meat and fish. Too many means wasted effort and time. You need the good ones to stalk and not scare off animals.

Child/Elder care: Educators, but also babysitters. All adults will rotate through the school to both teach what they know as well as learn new skills.

Cooking crew: run by a master chef, who manages the most calories to maintain a decent blood sugar so the work crews stay healthy. They know how to preserve food and to combine it so it's nutritious and tasty. Nothing is wasted. What few scraps are used for feed and for compost. That won't be much.

It's highly likely that the ramrod from each crew is reporting back at a council, for all are crucial. A change on one effects all.