Our Leaders & Information
Scoutmaster
Justin Kominar
Derek Boerger
Kevin Hayashi
Gerard Hayden
John Hayes
Michael Hwang
Wain Mailhot
Mike O'Neil
Noah Seastrom
John Seddon
Terri Stevens
Manisha Yadav
Peter Wilkens
Jim Yurko
Advancement Chair
John Ford
Committee Chair
Rachel Taber
Treasurer
Derek Boerger
Membership Chair
Jeremy Cheng
Training Coordinator
Rachel Taber
Medical Form Czar
Jeremy Cheng
Program Coordinator
Amy Hayes
Swanton Recovery
John Ford
Equipment Coordinator
John Seddon
Community Service Chair
Meilia Ong
Board of Reviewers
Ashu Agarwal
Alyson Ancheta
Victoria Contreras-Wolfe
Jennifer Coscarart
John Ford
Mary O'Connell
Jennifer Pang
Roopa Shankar
Christine Stephens
Merit Badge Counselors
John Ford
Rob Gabel
Michael Hwang
Dave LeRoy
Heather LeRoy
Terri Stevens
Rachel Taber
Peter Wilkens
Jim Yurko
Troop 539 has between 40-50 active boy scouts, ranging from 11 to 17 years old.
We meet year-round, every Tuesday. The first Tuesday of each month is "Green Bar" - which is a leadership meeting. We take a break the last two weeks of December, but we spent the first two weeks of December building hand-made wreaths for our single yearly fundraiser.
We have a "Senior Patrol," which is comprised of 9th graders and older who have reached Star rank. This patrol works together to plan the program and help the younger scouts.
We have 4 patrols, each with a Patrol Leader and Assistant Patrol Leader. Each patrol has between 8-10 scouts of all ages and ranks.
We have a super-cool 539 Scout Hut. The ultimate boy’s club house, chock-full of scouting memorabilia. 2-Story with 15 rooms, so each patrol has their own private patrol room! Complete with fireplace, dual campfire rings out back and a Tomahawk range. Some have called our hut the “Taj Mahal” of scout huts.
We have exclusive-use to a Troop 539 Campground called “Swanton.” Every patrol has their own private patrol campsite with fire pit and can set up and decorate their site with pioneering projects and other camp gadgets and then leave it that way! Located only 7 miles north of Santa Cruz, a short 1-hour away. Includes both 5-station archery and 2-station tomahawk ranges. Sadly, Swanton burned badly in August 2020. We are motivated to restore it better than ever once it's safe to do so.
We conduct one troop fundraising project a year. For over 30 years, we have made and sold our own holiday wreaths with 99% of all sales kept by the troop as profit.
With active scouts across all the age/grade levels, we are large enough to have a good turnout at meetings and events, but not so large that scouts still get to know each other. With scouts aging out at 18 each year, there’s always room for more new scouts.
We are a boy-run troop; scouts decide the annual calendar, monthly meeting themes and troop meeting details, select the special trips, what they want to do during the campouts, etc. The scout leadership team meets monthly to review the past month & confirm the details of the upcoming events. The troop and patrol positions are rotated every 6 months. Basically every scout has a job to do to help keep the troop running.
With a Scoutmaster and several Assistant Scoutmasters (ASMs), there are sufficient trained adult leaders to support the scout’s plans and mentor them in their leadership positions. With some of the ASMs not continuing when their scouts age-out at 18, there is always both room and a need for additional ASMs from the new scout’s each year.
Our troop’s adult merit badge counselors offer all the Eagle required merit badges in-house, besides many other electives.
We encourage the scouts to have a broad and diverse scouting experience by participating in district & council events such as Camp-O-Ree, Scout-O-Rama, and Camp Hi-Sierra (every year since 1949). We also promote participation in Jamboree’s, special events and the Order of The Arrow. Don’t forget Bear-Paw snow camping and Snowshoe Treks too!
We focus on having fun, learning stuff and growing, both individually and as a group!