Welcome to Troop 23. I'm Dmitry Vorobyev, the Scoutmaster, and I'm glad your Scout is here.
The first weeks in a troop can feel like a lot at once: a health form, an application, a handbook, a uniform, an app, a calendar, and a first trip that seems to come with its own list of deadlines. Our job is to make your Scout's path simple, clear and exciting, and this page is where that starts. It puts everything a new family needs in the order you will need it. Each step is a sentence or two and a link to the page that explains it in full, and at the bottom there is a printable copy with a code that brings you back here.
If you read only one part, read the next one.
More in the Parent Guide, under Camping Trips.
Start with the health form: every trip needs one for every Scout.
Get the health formThe order matters more than the weeks. If your Scout's first trip comes sooner, the health form and the trip papers simply move up.
Our trips and events are published as a calendar you can subscribe to. Subscribe once, and a change to a trip shows up on your phone by itself.
Subscribe, don't download. A downloaded file is a snapshot and never updates, so a moved trip would not move on your phone.
Changes can take up to a day to reach your calendar, so urgent news still comes by email. The calendar has trips and events; it does not list the weekly Monday meetings, and deadlines are in What's Due on our home page and on each trip's page. An event marked tentative may not happen, and a few community events are listed even when the troop is not going.
| Troop dues | Once a year, paid to Troop 23. Covers badges and awards, troop equipment, and a new Scout's neckerchief, troop cap and one Class B T-shirt. |
| Registration | Once a year, paid online when you register. It is two fees in one payment: Scouting America membership and the Greater New York Councils program fee. |
| Scout Life magazine | Optional, on the same online form. |
| Trips | Each trip has its own fee, due by the date on the trip's page. |
| Summer camp | One week, usually in July, and the biggest cost of the year. The deposit is due at the start of March. |
The amounts are in the Parent Guide, under Costs and Summer Camp. Help with summer camp is available based on need, and a Scout who wants the troop's help takes part in our fundraisers. Outside the troop, Scouting America waives its national membership fee for military families (active duty, Reserve or National Guard) who register online, and Greater New York Councils offers camperships toward summer camp, with applications in the winter.
Scouts wear the field uniform (the tan shirt, often called Class A) to meetings and when we travel to a trip, and the activity uniform (the troop T-shirt, Class B) in camp. A new Scout doesn't have to have it all at once, but the sooner the uniform comes, the sooner your Scout looks and feels part of the troop; by the time your Scout joins a patrol, we expect it. Your Scout's dues already pay for the neckerchief, the troop cap and one Class B T-shirt. Before you buy the rest, ask us: there are gently used uniforms in the troop. New pieces are sold at scoutshop.org and at the council's Scout shops at Pouch Camp on Staten Island and at Alpine Scout Camp, both places the troop goes on trips.
The handbook comes to every meeting. The current one is the 2026 Scouts BSA Handbook, also sold in Spanish, bilingual English–Spanish and Chinese editions. A used older handbook is fine for learning skills, but its rank requirements may be out of date, so check them in Scoutbook. More in the Parent Guide.
The troop camps about once a month. We usually leave Friday evening from the OLA parking lot and come back Sunday around midday. Every trip has its own page on this site with the times, the place on a map, what is due and by when, and what to bring; a few trips need an extra form of their own, such as the shooting sports waiver at Ten Mile River. Read that page with your Scout, and let your Scout do the packing: it is part of learning to camp. The rules for trips are in Procedures: Events.
A Scout's first question goes to their patrol leader, then to the senior patrol leader, and then to me. That order is on purpose: the troop is run by its Scouts. A parent's question about joining goes to Sherman Wong or Tom Kramer, and anything else to the troop's email, [email protected]; both are on our contact page. When we write to you, please answer within two days (why that matters).
Photos from our trips are in the troop's photo archive, which is for members only; that page explains how to get access.
Monday meetings are for the Scouts, so you don't need to stay. What helps most is simple: get your Scout to meetings and trips, take an interest in what they are learning, and come to our Courts of Honor, where awards are presented in front of families four times a year. Any adult who comes to a campsite, even for a day, takes Safeguarding Youth Training first. If you would like to camp with us or help run the troop, start with registering as an adult; the Parent Guide has the rest.
For a Scout already registered with a Cub Scout pack or another troop, the old unit starts a transfer, and the troop then accepts it the same way it accepts a new application. Tell us when you ask them. Whatever your Scout earned in Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA advancement starts again with the Scout rank, the first of seven.
Write to us any time, or catch an adult leader at a Monday meeting.
Last reviewed October 2026. Where this page and Scouting America's own pages disagree, theirs are right; tell us, and we'll fix ours.
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