PLN-04 — Lesson 5 of 6
Setting Your Own PREP-CON
Localizing the national baseline to your own situation
Lesson Objectives
- Explain why the national PREP-CON baseline is a floor, not a ceiling
- Identify the factors that shift your own personal level
- Describe how the Daily Threat Report helps you localize the national baseline
Part A — Localizing the Baseline
Factors that shift your personal level
FFTP publishes a PREP-CON level, but it’s a US-wide baseline — a starting point and a floor, not a ceiling. Your location, sector, family composition, and operational role in your MAG all shift the picture.
| Factor | Effect on Your Level |
|---|---|
| Location | Proximity to affected infrastructure, coastlines, fault lines, or border regions can raise your personal level above the national baseline. |
| Sector / Occupation | Work in critical infrastructure, healthcare, finance, or government can mean earlier visibility into stress. |
| Family Composition | Dependents, medical needs, or mobility constraints can justify staging earlier. |
| Operational Role in MAG | Net control stations, medical leads, and logistics coordinators may need to escalate ahead of general membership. |
| Regional vs. National Scope | A regional event that barely moves the national number may demand a materially higher posture from you specifically. |
How the Daily Threat Report helps: the DTR identifies threats by location and applies PREP-CON analysis to them. Read the published level as input, use the DTR’s geographic detail to localize it, and set the level you’ll actually operate at.
Knowledge Check
The national PREP-CON level published by FFTP is best understood as:
Knowledge Check
Which factor is given as an example of something that could justify staging earlier than the national baseline suggests?
Related courses: COM-01 PACE Communications Planning • PLN-01 Community Situational Awareness • PLN-05 COMCON • SEC-02 OPSEC • INT-03 SALUTE & SPOT Reporting
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