How to join 116
Just show up at any of our weekly meetings and we'll get you signed up.
We meet Thursdays at 7:30pm, from Labor Day to mid-June, in the basement of the Calvary Presbyterian Church in Wyncote, PA.
The church is on Bent Road at Kent Ave; (the entrance to the basement is around the back on Fernbrook Ave. (Note that, while we do meet in a church basement, we are a rigorously non-denominational troop open to any person of any faith or none.)
Joining requirements
For the most up-to-date requirements and information about joining Scouts, see the official BSA website at www.scouting.org. But in brief:
To join Scout Troop 116, you must be:
- A boy or a girl
- Aged 11 to 17 (or 10 and already completed fifth grade)
- Willing to have fun
To join Venture Crew 116, you must be:
- A young man or young woman
- Aged 14-20
- Willing to have fun (and understand you will NOT be tenting with your girlfriend/boyfriend)
If you are not yet old enough for the troop of crew, there is Cub Scouts.
Under 11? Try Cub Scouts
For boys and girls under 11, look into one of the many fine local cub scout pack, which are appropriate for boys in first through fifth grades (ages 7–10).
Pack 38 meets in the same church as we do Wednesday nights; you can email us for more information. You can also find the pack closest to you at beascout.scouting.org.
Webelos: Try out the troop!
Members of the older branch of Cub Scouts—called Webelos, generally aged 9 and 10—and their leaders and parents are welcome anytime at our weekly meetings.
Webelos are often invited to accompany the troop on several of our easier weekend trips throughout the year—from camping to canoeing to punkin' chunkin'—so long as at least one of the Webelos' adult leaders or parents accompanies them. (The more, the merrier; adults have fun on the trips, too.)
Contact the scoutmaster to see which trips this year might be appropriate for your Webelo.
Other than the required age restrictions, we accept all applicants of every race, religion, sexual orientation, and physical or mental capability. We also, as a troop, strenuously disagree with BSA's official stance on atheism and choose to ignore it.
So long as you are willing to work as part of the team and are ready for some high adventure fun in the great outdoors, we're happy to have you join the troop.
Why join?
Picking after-school activities is an important decision. Troop 116 recognizes that there are many opportunities available for adolescents and teens, and that Scouting is only one of them.
In addition, there are many Scout troops and Venture Crews to join. So why pick 116?
Our troop and crew help our community’s boys and girls improve themselves and their compatriots within a context of supervised adventure and community service.
Troop and Crew 116 have great programs that emphasize fun, skill development, leadership training, safety, and camaraderie.
Scout Troop 116 and Venture Crew 116 are dedicated to helping boys and girls discover their individual talents and develop competence in areas in which they might not currently shine.
As they mature, the young men and women are increasingly called upon to recognize others’ talents and to marshal them towards a group effort.
On our weekend trips, your son or daughter will not be sofa or bench warming. We offer significant recreational and developmental opportunities for every boy and girl, whatever his or her personality and individual interests may be. We offer the opportunity for each boy and girl to be recognized, to develop his or her native talents, and to challenge himself or herself, in a supportive atmosphere, to develop new skills and interests.
No matter how you want to measure our program – outdoors skills, enriching experiences, Eagle Scout-to-member ratio, leadership experience, safety protocols (from youth protection to high adventure), and even economic value—Troop 116 and Venture Crew 116 excel.
Fun and skills
Our young people are fortunate to have choices of many activities that were not available to prior generations. Some of these activities develop athletic skills, some develop intellectual skills, and some develop social skills and moral values.
Scouting develops all these areas; for that reason, we are not just another item on the menu of available activities.
How many other after-school programs allow you to master wilderness survival skills; participate in local government; go glacier climbing in Alaska and white water rafting on the Colorado River; devise community service projects to help the less fortunate or rebuild local parks; travel to all 50 states and 14 foreign countries; crew a sailboat to the Bahamas; and pursue interests as varied as computer programming, veterinary science, robotics, archery, cooking, journalism, art, and kayaking—sometimes all in just one year?
Troop 116 engages in a robust program of trips (once a month during the school year, plus summer camp and a summer epic), service projects, and merit badge counselling and rank advancement.
Put it this way: Nationally, about 2.5% of all Scouts BSA reach the highest rank of Eagle Scout.
In Troop 116, it's about 25%—and of boys who remain in the troop past the age of 15 or so, it's more like 70%.
Our troop motto: Skill. Power. Pride.
Leadership and teamwork
Girls and boys in the troop advance at their own pace and develop leadership skills by taking on positions of increasing responsibility within the troop.
The top position is Senior Patrol Leader, and—this teenage SPL—with the help of his or her ASPL and other Senior Staff—truly does run the troop, from managing the weekly meetings to setting the trips calaendar to making all decisions during the day-to-day operations whenever we are traveling together or on a service project. (The adult leaders prefer to take a back seat, merely providing advice, credit cards, and chaffeur services—and handling the BSA bureaucracy.)
Girls and boys do the same in the Crew, advancing eventually to the leadership roles of President and Vice President to run this truly democratic youth orginization. (The adult Advisors to the Crew are, if anything, even more hands-off than with the troop—especially since crew members' ages range up to 21.)
Scouting is one of the few programs that provide young men and women with formal leadership training and a framework (the patrol system) in which to practice and evaluate the leadership experience.
They learn how to be part of a team and follow a leader—in large part because they get many chances to take on vairous leadership roles and so learn how important individual effort is to effective teamwork.
They also learn the value of working together as a team to achieve something greater than any one person could alone.
All of these teamwork and leadership skills are crucial to help navigate, thrive, and excel in school, college, and the workplace.
Flexibility
One of the reasons that Troop 116 has been successful for the past century is our flexible approach.
Participation in school sports and other groups is encouraged, as we want our members to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves and be part of the greater community.
Many of our scouts are also active in their school band or orchestra and play on (and frequently captain) school teams from football to robotics, wrestling to debate. We've shown up, as a group and in uniform, to cheer on fellow troop members ranging from Cheltenham's star quarterback to rising thesbians in their community playhouse premiers to published authors at book signings.
Accommodations for scouts with complex schedules and other commitments have included arranging late transportation for weekend trips, early arrival home from trips, and even flying individual scouts out to meet summer trips already underway.
The 116 network
Another resource that sets Troop 116 apart is our great Alumni network.
Scouts that grow up in our troop tend to form life-long friendships with the other boys and girls. This provides depth in adult leadership, “institutional memory,” and is evidence of the quality of our program and the strength of the friendships formed.
As adults, many return to the troop to see each other, participate in our outdoors program, and give back to the next generation of Scouts. Adult members who remain in or return to the area frequently become active Assistant Scoutmasters.
Even alumni who are scattered to the corners of the globe still participate when called upon. We have several former scouts in Colorado who frequently help out with skiing trips and road trips out west, some who now live and work in New York and provide free accommodation in their miniature New York apartments for our city trips there, one in Montana who is now a river guide and has lead several white water rafting trips (bonus: for free), and a professional travel writer who took the troop to Europe for a month.