Welcome to Pack 162.

Who can join

Any child in kindergarten through fifth grade. You don't need to attend Caraway Elementary, live in any particular neighborhood, or have any prior scouting experience. Boys and girls. Any background, any ability level. Cub Scouting is for all kids and families.

Your child joins a den of three to ten scouts in their own grade, and the dens together make up the pack. If you're not sure what any of that means yet, Scouting 101 is the place to start.

How to join, step by step

1. Complete a youth application

Start your Pack 162 youth application. The link goes to our pack's own page on Scouting America's site — check the address and meeting time on it match what you've read here, then hit Apply Now. You'll create a Scouting America account as part of the process, and pay the $85 national registration fee.

Complete a youth application only. The adult application is just for parents taking on an official volunteer role with the pack, and you don't need one to have your child join or to come along to events.

2. Register with Pack 162

Registering with Scouting America nationally and joining this particular pack are two different things, so there's a second form. Fill out the Pack 162 New Member form. It's short, and it's how we know you're coming.

The pack runs its own member site at austinpack162.com, where the calendar, rosters, sign-ups, and payments live. You don't create that login yourself. Once the Membership Chair has your New Member form, she sets up your family's account and emails you the details. If you run into any trouble with this step, or a couple of days go by and you haven't heard, reach out from the Contact page. She'd rather hear from you than have you stuck.

3. Pay pack dues

Once your pack login arrives, pay the $100 dues per scout at austinpack162.com/paypal/pay. Add a Class B t-shirt ($10) to the same order if you want one.

Heads up: adding items puts them in a cart, and the purchase isn't finished until you click View Cart in the top left of the page and complete checkout.

4. Complete medical forms A and B

Fill out Scouting America Medical Forms A and B (PDF) for your scout, for yourself, and for any other parent who will attend events — meetings, campouts, or overnighters. Parts A and B need no doctor's visit.

Print them, sign them, and hand them to any pack leader. We can only accept paper copies. Save the filled-in file somewhere you'll find it again. A new form is required every year, so next year becomes a two-minute job.

5. Read Safeguarding Youth for Parents

Every parent should read Safeguarding Youth for Parents (PDF). It sets out Scouting America's youth protection policies and how to report a concern.

It is also highly encouraged that every parent go back to the Scouting America site and complete the full Safeguarding Youth Training (SYT), which is free, takes about an hour, and is done at your own pace through the account you created in step 1 at my.scouting.org. This keeps all our scouts safe.

6. Join the pack WhatsApp group

WhatsApp is where day-to-day reminders go out, and where updates get posted during an event.

The group is invite-only, so there's no link to click here. Your den leader adds you once you're registered — ask them at your first meeting, or mention it on your New Member form.

7. Join BAND for pack picture sharing

The pack uses the BAND app to share photos from meetings, campouts, and race days, rather than putting scouts on social media. Also invite-only, and you're added the same way.

What it costs

Two annual fees, plus an optional t-shirt. Both fees are paid at the steps above; this is the whole picture in one place:

• Scouting America national registration: $85. Paid once a year when you submit the youth application, and renewed each year your child is in scouts.
• Pack 162 dues: $100 per scout, per school year. Due in full before October 1. This covers belt loops, rank patches, the parent pin, a Pinewood Derby car, and part of the cost of campouts, overnighters, den materials, and everything else the pack does through the year.
• Class B pack t-shirt: $10. Optional, but scouts wear them constantly. See Uniforms.

The Class A uniform is bought separately at the Scout Shop, and you do not need it on day one. Your scout can wear their regular clothes until you can get their uniform. Uniforms has the details and the suggested minimum.

If cost is what's standing in the way, please ask. Write to the Membership Chair before you decide against joining.

Then you're in

Pack meetings are held the first Thursday of most months at 6:45 PM in the Caraway Elementary cafeteria, and the whole pack comes, families included. All of our pack meetings are open to guests throughout the school year. You don't have to be registered, or to have decided anything, to come and see one. Upcoming dates are on the pack calendar.

Den meetings are separate, and are scheduled by each den based on leader and family preference, usually once or twice a month. Your den leader will reach out with info about your first one.

Every new Cub Scout starts by earning the Bobcat rank, whatever their age: the Scout Oath and Scout Law, the Cub Scout sign, salute, handshake and motto, and a short child-safety exercise you work through with your scout at home. Your den leader will start them on it right away, and new scouts are welcomed into Pack 162 with a Bobcat ceremony at the fall campout.

Advancement is tracked in Scoutbook, using the same login you created for the youth application.

One last thing. Pack 162 doesn't run without help from the adults — we are entirely parent volunteer led. There are plenty of ways to pitch in, from a named leadership position down to a one-time job at a single event, and nobody expects a new family to start with the first kind. Talk to any pack leader for more info.

Joining mid-year

You don't have to wait until the start of the school year. Families are welcome to join any time, and we'll loop your child into their den right away so they don't miss out on the rest of the year's activities and advancement.

Have a question first?

We'd love to hear from you before you commit. Write to the Membership Chair from the Contact page if you have any questions about the pack, about scouting, or if you run into any trouble with the steps above. We'll get back to you within a couple of days.

Or come and see us in person — any pack meeting, as above. Once a year we also run Join Scouting Night, an open house at the start of the school year where you can ask all of it face to face and sign up on the spot if you want to.