Mutual Aid is a great idea. Public Safety mutual aid works well because for the most part, all members already have most of the equipment and staff in place and it is only being lent for a short duration. Much of the equipment is durable and is not consumed as part of the aid provided. Your description seems to be more of a deal where each member will have to invest money to purchase consumable supplies that may be stored indefinitely.

Increasing my stores to accomadate an additional 8 people would be a considerable task. I have a family of 4 and the stores for just us takes up quite a bit of space. Adding food, fuel, shelter, water, medical, etc for an additional 8 people would become considerably expensive and bulky. I could see where I could increase my stores from 4 to 6 or to 8 but 12 would be a hardship.

I would also view this as changing my personal focus from depth to breath. I am working on providing additional layers of support for my family where I would need to split my funds to also providing limit capability for a wider group.

While I agree that it would be extremely beneficial to have mutual aid agreements, I am not sure I just how much money you may be expecting. 20 gallons @ $3 = $60, 8 sleeping bags @$35 = $280, 2 four man tents @ $75 = $150, etc. Very quickly you are talking thousands of dollars. Limiting your mutal aid to 72 hr basics may be able to contain costs.

I could see where you would need to budget $100 a month in supplies. Additionally each member would need to purchase storage containers and have adequate space to store the supplies. How do you handle the situation where the members are not keeping up with the purchases?

As a public safety volunteer for over a decade, I well understand the concept and value of mutual aid. As a prepper and planner, I see the value of having additional supplies and people to be able to count on. I could see where I would be willing to increase my stores to accomodate up to 4 more people at a susistence level because some of those supplies would also provide my family backup or extended services if so required. More than 4 and it would take a considerable commitment on all parts of the aid agreement to meet the goals.