FAQ
Common questions about how prepping.club actually works — events, pricing, the club, and the shop.
General
What is prepping.club?
A shop for real kits, gear, and refurbished privacy-hardened tech, hands-on public events (workshops, hackathons, a full residential Academy), real-world challenges to work through, a members club, and on-site training for companies — all built around what actually happens in an emergency, not a checklist copied from somewhere else.
Who is this for?
Anyone from complete beginners to people who want real depth. Preparedness 101 assumes zero experience; the Academy is the deep end.
What's the difference between Challenges and Resources?
Challenges are real emergency scenarios — what matters most when something goes wrong. Resources is different: honest explainers on the operating systems and self-hosted software behind the gear we sell and the club's own infrastructure, plus what the members-only Platform actually is.
Events & RSVP
How do I book a spot?
RSVP directly on the event's own page — no account or sign-up needed. A real person confirms your booking.
Do I need experience?
Most public events assume none. The Academy and Summer School are the exception — they're built for people who already want to go deep.
Pricing & cancellations
Are all events paid?
No — several are free (the meetup, the hackathons), and most others currently show "Contact for pricing" until a real number is set. Only the Academy has real published pricing today.
How does Early Bird / Regular / Last-minute pricing work?
On events with tiered pricing, the rate goes up the closer you book to the event — Early Bird is the cheapest and the surest way to get a spot, Last-minute is whatever's still open with no guarantee. Booking earlier gets you both a better price and a better chance at a spot.
What's the cancellation / no-show policy?
On paid events: booking a spot means someone else can't. If you don't show up without cancelling in advance, your payment isn't refunded. Cancel at least 15 days before the event for a full refund — that gives organizers time to offer your spot to someone else. Cancellations closer to the event, or no-shows, aren't refunded. On free events, there's no payment at stake, but spots are still limited — please cancel your RSVP if you can't make it so we can offer it to someone else.
The Academy & Summer School
What's the difference between the Academy and Summer School?
The Prepper Academy is a five-day, day-only program for adults. Summer School Prepper is the under-18 counterpart — a residential program for ages 16+, run as two separate regional sessions (Craiova and Bucharest), not a shortened version of the adult program.
What about minors?
Summer School's minimum age is 16. Participants under 18 need written parent or guardian consent to attend — a consent form is sent to every registrant after booking, before the program starts.
Club membership
What do I get?
Priority booking on every public event (including the Hackathon and Academy, both capped and known to fill up), access to the members-only Field Exercise (not open to the public at any price), member pricing across the shop, and the members-only Member Platform and resource library. At events members bring their own device; borrowing club hardware is part of Pro.
Is there a member login?
Yes — the Member Platform lives at a separate address, platform.prepping.club, linked from the Club page. It's where Hackathon teams organize their build, members track personal prep projects, and club initiatives get coordinated.
How do I join?
Apply through the form on the Club page. Applications are reviewed by a person, not auto-approved — we'll follow up by email with a decision and, if approved, payment instructions.
Shop
Is there a real checkout?
Not yet — there's no cart. Pick a product for full details, then order through the contact form on its page or the shop page. A real person gets back to you with price and delivery, no automated checkout.
What's actually on the tech side of the shop?
Refurbished phones (SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch, GrapheneOS, PostmarketOS), laptops (NixOS, Debian, Fedora, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Arch), homeservers and remote-access PCs, and USB sticks with a Live OS or a Ventoy multi-boot setup. Every device ships already reflashed — see Resources for what each OS actually is before you pick one.
Company training
What's covered?
Workplace emergency response, first aid & basic triage, communication under disruption, business continuity basics, and team-building through scenario challenges. See Training for the full breakdown.
What format is it?
Half-day or full-day sessions, on-site at your offices or remote for distributed teams. Group size and content are scoped to your team.
Didn't find your answer? Get in touch.