Adults welcome
Volunteer
Every pack, troop and crew in East Texas is run by volunteers. Almost all of them started out as a parent who said yes to one small thing.
The honest version
You do not need to be an outdoors expert
You need to be reliable, willing to learn, and safe around young people. Scouting trains you for the rest, and it is free.
Help at a meeting
An hour a week. Run a game, help a den with a project, check people in. The easiest possible start, and the one most units need most.
Take a role
Den leader, assistant scoutmaster, treasurer, advancement chair, committee member. Each has real training behind it and none of them expect you to already know how.
Merit badge counsellor
If you have a trade, a profession or a serious hobby, you can counsel the merit badge that matches it. Some counsellors work with only a handful of Scouts a year.
Before you start
Safeguarding Youth Training
Every registered adult in Scouting America must complete Safeguarding Youth Training (SYT) before working with young people. It is free, it is taken online, and the full course takes about ninety minutes including a short test.
SYT expires after twelve months and must be renewed every year. Once you have taken the full course, the annual renewal is a much shorter refresher.
If you did Scouting years ago, this is the part that changed. Safeguarding Youth Training replaced the old Youth Protection Training (YPT) in May 2025, and it now renews annually rather than every two years. An old YPT certificate no longer counts.
SYT is taken through my.Scouting. You will also complete an adult application and a criminal background check — both routine, and both required of everyone.
Serving beyond your own unit
Districts need volunteers too — commissioners who support a handful of units, camporee staff, training teams, Scouting for Food organisers, and district committee members. If your own children have aged out of the programme but you are not finished with it, this is usually where you land.
Starting a new unit
If there is no pack or troop where you live, a new one can be chartered by a church, school, civic club, veterans' post or business. The council walks a new chartered organisation through it from the beginning.
Ready, or just curious? Call the council service center on 903-597-7201, or visit a unit meeting and tell the leader you would like to help. Find one on the Join page.