Monday nights, 7:00 PM.

Troop 62 is a Scouts BSA troop for boys, and Scouts BSA runs from 11 to 17. A boy can start at 10 if he’s finished fifth grade or earned his Arrow of Light, and he has to have joined before he turns 18.

If your son is younger than that, don’t write us off — Cub Scouting is where he’d start, and you don’t have to go far. Cub Scout Pack 62 meets in the same building we do, Mondays at 6:00 PM, right before our meeting. They’re at cubpack62.org, and their Cubmaster answers at cubmaster@cubpack62.org. He’ll be eligible for Troop 62 soon enough, and we’d like him when he is.

And if you have a daughter who wants this, she should have it — the answer just depends on how old she is. Under 11, it’s the same Pack 62 as above: Cub Scouting is co-ed, so she’d be in the same building on the same Monday night as her brother. From 11, Scouts BSA runs girls’ troops separately, and the one nearest you is Troop 1228, at Douglasville First United Methodist Church, 6167 Prestley Mill Road, Douglasville, Georgia 30134 (open in Maps →). They answer at scoutsbsa1228@gmail.com. Same program, same ranks, same Eagle at the end of it.

No Scout is required at every campout. Families have weekends, boys play sports, and nobody gets in trouble for missing one. But we’ll be straight with you: the ones who come to most of them move through the ranks noticeably faster, because a good deal of advancement is things you simply cannot do in a church fellowship hall on a Monday.

That’s the practical reason. The real one is that the campouts are the interesting part — a night on a battleship, a week at Woodruff, a barrier island off the Georgia coast. Come to as many as you can manage. See where we’ve been.

Troop 62 is Scout-led. The boys hold the leadership positions and do the running — our Senior Patrol Leader and his Assistant lead the meetings, and Patrol Leaders look after their own patrols. Our Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmasters are there to coach, keep everyone safe, and step in when it’s needed, not to run the show. It means a Scout learns to plan a campout, sort out a problem, and stand up in front of a room long before anyone hands him a job that expects it. You can see who currently holds which position on the members page.

Scouting has rules about this and we follow them, so it’s worth saying out loud what they are. There are always at least two registered adults present — at a meeting, on a campout, everywhere. No adult is ever one-on-one with a Scout who isn’t his own son, and that holds for texts and calls as much as it does for the church parking lot.

Every registered adult in the troop is background-checked and has done BSA Youth Protection Training, which has to be renewed every two years or the registration lapses. That’s not a Troop 62 policy we came up with; it’s the floor nationally, and we don’t go below it.

And you’re welcome at any meeting or any campout, any time, without asking first. If a troop ever tells you otherwise, that’s the troop to worry about.

We’re chartered by Lithia Springs Methodist Church and we meet in their building, so the flavour here leans Christian — Scout Sunday is a real church service, and it’s the fundraiser that sends the troop to camp. We’re not going to pretend that isn’t part of it.

But that is about the whole of it. Nobody is going to quiz your son on what he believes or what your family does on a Sunday morning, and no boy has ever been turned away over the answer. Bring him as he is.

Come and keep coming. There is nothing to sign and nothing to pay for the first few meetings — turn up, camp with us if a campout lands in there, and let him work out whether this is his kind of thing before anyone asks you for anything.

When he decides he’s staying, that’s the point you fill out a Scouting America youth application and he registers as a member of Troop 62. We’ll hand you the form on a Monday and walk you through it — it is short, and the annual national registration fee is the only money attached to it. The next section is that number, in full.

If that fee is what’s standing in the way, tell us. We would far rather have an awkward conversation and sort it out with you than lose a Scout over money.

Nobody likes having to ask, so here it is without being asked. Scouting America charges an annual national registration fee — $85 a year for a Scout, and $65 a year for an adult who registers as a volunteer. That goes to national, not to us. There’s no joining fee on top of it any more, and Troop 62 charges no dues of its own.

If a parent or guardian is serving, that $85 is waived. Any branch of the United States armed forces — Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force or Coast Guard — and it covers Reserves and National Guard, not only active duty. Scouting America handles it through a verification step during registration, so say so while you’re filling the application out rather than after. Ask us if you’re not sure where it goes on the form.

After that, the camping is free. Not discounted — free. The troop covers the monthly campouts for every Scout, and Scout Sunday pays for the week at Woodruff each June, so the part of Scouting your son will actually remember isn’t the part you have to budget for. The gear is ours too, which the next section gets into.

And if cost is the thing standing between your son and a Monday night, say so when you email. We would much rather have that conversation than lose a Scout over it.

Nobody has to kit out a Scout before he can come camping. The troop hauls its own supply trailer — tents, tarps, stakes and the rest of the essentials — so the gear is already there when you get there. Woodruff Scout Camp in June is easier still: camp handles the food and the lodging once we arrive, and Scout Sunday already paid for the week.

His own kit — backpack, clothes, that sort of thing — is his to bring, and whether the trailer has room to haul it depends on the trip. Ask on a Monday before a campout and we’ll tell you what’s going in the trailer and what he’s carrying himself.

The official kit — uniforms, handbooks, merit badge pamphlets, insignia, the lot — comes from the Atlanta Area Council Official Scout Shop. It is the real thing rather than a lookalike, and it is the one errand worth making the drive for.

Atlanta Scout Shop
1800 Circle 75 Parkway SE
Atlanta, Georgia 30339
(770) 988-9912
Monday–Friday 9:00 AM–6:00 PM · Saturday 10:00 AM–4:00 PM · closed Sunday
Open in Maps →

None of it is needed to visit, and none of it is needed on day one. Ask on a Monday before you spend anything — we can tell you what he actually needs now and what can wait, and the troop has spare bits and pieces.

Two other units come up on this page, and both are a better answer than us for the family they suit. We’ve written up everything we know about each one.

Cub Scout Pack 62 → Scouts BSA Troop 1228 →