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.

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.

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 currently serving — active duty, Reserves or National Guard, any branch — that $85 is free. Say so on the application when you’re filling out the paperwork and Scouting America waives it. 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.