ABOUT THE PREPARED MAJORITY
Building a Resilient Network Before It Is Needed.
The Prepared Majority (TPM) is a private, national preparedness organization founded upon and committed to the principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.
TPM is building a nationally connected Network of prepared individuals, resilient households, and self-sustaining communities designed to remain capable, organized, connected, and mutually supportive through periods of disruption.
We believe preparedness is more than storing supplies or planning for a particular emergency. It is about building capability, relationships, communications, organization, and resilience before they are needed.
Build capability locally. Connect capability nationally. Sustain the Network through disruption.
PREPARE • CONNECT • COMMUNICATE • SUPPORT
More Than a Preparedness Organization.
The Prepared Majority is not simply a preparedness website, training program, communications group, or collection of people who share an interest in emergencies.
TPM is building a Network. That distinction is fundamental.
We bring together people who believe in preparedness, personal responsibility, self-reliance, strong communities, constitutional principles, and mutual support.
The purpose is to establish a connected organization with useful capability distributed throughout its structure before a major disruption occurs.
Normal Systems May Not Always Be Normal.
Modern American life depends upon highly interconnected systems.
Most of the time those systems function so reliably that it is easy to assume they always will.
Preparedness requires recognizing that disruptions happen. Natural disasters, infrastructure failures, cyber incidents, economic disruptions, civil emergencies, and other significant events can degrade normal systems. In a severe or prolonged event, several systems may be affected simultaneously.
TPM does not believe the time to begin building preparedness relationships, communications, organization, and capability is after those systems have already failed. The Network should already exist.
We rely every day upon:
Build and Sustain the Network.
The mission of The Prepared Majority is to build and sustain a constitutionally grounded national preparedness Network of prepared individuals, resilient households, and self-sustaining communities capable of maintaining essential functions, communications, coordination, continuity, and mutual support during periods of disruption.
Through a Common Preparedness Framework, TPM develops the knowledge, skills, resources, trusted relationships, communications, and organizational capabilities necessary for the Network to remain resilient.
Our strategic approach is straightforward:
BUILD CAPABILITY LOCALLY.
Individuals, households, and Communities develop real preparedness capability where they live.
CONNECT CAPABILITY NATIONALLY.
Communities connect through Areas, States, and Regions to form the National TPM Network.
SUSTAIN THE NETWORK THROUGH DISRUPTION.
Capability is distributed so local portions of the Network can continue functioning even when normal systems or broader connectivity are temporarily unavailable.
A Free People Should Be a Prepared People.
TPM is founded upon and committed to the principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.
We believe that individual liberty and personal responsibility reinforce one another.
We believe citizens should develop the knowledge and capability to care for themselves, their households, their communities, and one another while preserving the rights and liberties guaranteed by our constitutional system.
For TPM, preparedness is therefore not simply about surviving an emergency. It is part of building responsible individuals, resilient communities, and a capable Network.
Individual liberty. Personal responsibility. Prepared communities. A resilient Network.
Our foundational principles include:
Prepared People Strengthen the Common Defense.
The Constitution's Preamble includes the purpose to "provide for the common defence."
TPM believes a prepared, capable, organized, and resilient citizenry can contribute to that common defense.
Our contribution begins with preparedness.
People capable of maintaining essential functions, communicating during disruption, solving problems, protecting life and property within the law, sharing reliable information, helping their neighbors, and supporting their communities contribute to the resilience of the society around them.
The Prepared Majority does not replace the responsibilities of the Armed Forces, law enforcement, emergency management, fire and emergency medical services, or other legitimate governmental institutions. Our role is complementary.
In doing so, TPM seeks to strengthen preparedness and contribute to the common defense.
Preparedness Begins Locally.
TPM is intentionally built from the individual upward.
Capability is built locally and connected nationally.
INDIVIDUAL
The foundation of the Network. Individuals develop knowledge, skills, judgment, plans, equipment, resources, and personal preparedness.
HOUSEHOLD
The first level of collective resilience. Households develop plans, resources, communications, and the ability to maintain essential household functions.
TPM COMMUNITY
The foundation of local Network capability. Prepared people and households develop trusted relationships, shared skills, communications, resources, organization, and mutual-support capability.
TPM AREA
The primary geographic organizational level connecting TPM Communities within an Area. Areas strengthen coordination, communications, capability, and local Network development.
TPM STATE
Connects and supports TPM Areas throughout a state.
TPM REGION
Connects states and provides broader Network continuity, interoperability, communications, and support.
NATIONAL TPM NETWORK
The National TPM Network connects the broader organization and enables national-level continuity, interoperability, communications, coordination, information sharing, and mutual support.
Self-Sustaining Does Not Mean Isolated.
This distinction is central to TPM.
A self-sustaining TPM Community does not attempt to separate itself from the rest of society or the larger TPM Network.
Self-sustaining means developing sufficient local capability to address foreseeable needs for a meaningful period without immediately depending upon outside assistance.
That may include local capabilities involving:
Food • Water • Medical • Energy • Communications • Transportation • Shelter • Tools • Skills • Information • Organization • Mutual Support
But no Community will possess every possible capability. That is precisely why the Network exists.
When a need exceeds local capability, support can expand through the Network:
Support may also move laterally. A nearby Community may have the needed skill. Another Area may have available resources. One Region may remain fully operational while another experiences significant disruption.
COMMUNITY ↔ AREA ↔ STATE ↔ REGION ↔ NATIONAL
Self-sustaining locally. Mutually supporting collectively.
Disconnection Should Not Mean Disorganization.
A Network intended to endure disruption must recognize that the disruption may affect the Network itself.
TPM therefore seeks to avoid unnecessary dependence upon any single point of failure.
Preparedness capability should instead be distributed throughout the Network.
If connection with higher levels of TPM becomes temporarily unavailable, local elements should retain the capability to continue functioning within their circumstances and responsibilities.
When broader connectivity becomes available, those elements reconnect with the Network.
This creates an organization characterized by:
The failure of one part of the Network should not mean the failure of the Network.
Everything TPM Develops Supports Four Fundamental Functions.
PREPARE
Develop capability before it is needed.
Build the knowledge, skills, planning, resources, equipment, and practical capabilities necessary to continue functioning through disruption.
CONNECT
Build relationships before they are needed.
Connect individuals and households into trusted Communities, then connect those Communities into the larger Network.
COMMUNICATE
Keep the Network connected.
Develop resilient and interoperable communications capable of maintaining essential information flow when conventional systems become unreliable or unavailable.
SUPPORT
Build the capability to sustain ourselves and help one another.
Develop local capability first, then use the larger Network to coordinate mutual support when requirements exceed local capability.
PREPARE • CONNECT • COMMUNICATE • SUPPORT
These are not simply TPM's slogan. They describe how the Network is built and how it is intended to function.
A Common Framework. Local Adaptation.
A national Network needs enough commonality for its different parts to communicate, understand one another, and work together.
TPM therefore uses a Common Preparedness Framework to establish the capabilities toward which individuals, households, and Communities work.
But preparedness cannot be identical everywhere. A Community in western Washington may have different hazards, resources, infrastructure, climate, and requirements from a Community in Arizona, Alaska, Texas, Florida, or New England.
This provides common preparedness expectations while preserving the local flexibility necessary for Communities to address their own circumstances.
EXPLORE PREPAREDNESS →The principle:
STANDARDIZE THE CAPABILITY. ADAPT THE SOLUTION.
Trust Is Built Before It Is Needed.
The strength of TPM ultimately does not come from a headquarters, website, technology platform, piece of equipment, or organizational chart.
It comes from people.
Trust cannot simply be created after a crisis begins. For that reason, TPM builds its Network deliberately.
Our objective is not simply to accumulate membership. Our objective is to build a capable, trusted, resilient Network.
LEARN ABOUT GETTING INVOLVED →The End State.
The long-term objective of The Prepared Majority is a self-sustaining, nationally connected preparedness Network with meaningful capability distributed throughout its structure.
A Network where:
And, above all:
When disruption occurs, the Network should not have to be created.
It should already be there.
PREPARE • CONNECT • COMMUNICATE • SUPPORT