IT'S an ever popular organisation that is now looking for new recruits in rather unexpected places.
Scouts Scotland is currently expanding and forming new groups in jails so the children of prisoners can take part, sometimes even with their fathers joining in group sessions.
For 45 minutes, once a week, the Kelvin Scout and Guide Club meets at Low Moss prison, north of Glasgow.
All scarves must be left outside security, so neckerchiefs are banned, and there is too little time for badge ceremonies, but otherwise the regular Thursday afternoon sessions at the jail are very much like any other Scout group.
It's a new development which six months after its launch is now set to be duplicated at another high security prison, and is one of the most unusual ways in which scouting in Scotland is being reimagined.
The organisation is currently seeking a new chief executive, with a remit to lead a "major programme of change and delivery" and make the youth organisation founded by Robert Baden Powell just over a century ago more relevant than ever.
The successful candidate for the £55-65,000 a year post will be expected to oversee developments including the new prison-based Scout groups, stripped-back after school Scout 'clubs' to help the uniformed organisation reach into areas of social deprivation, and a new approach which gives young people themselves more say in the direction scouting takes.
There is also a commitment to extending the connection cub, scout and beaver groups have always had to the outdoors - with an aim to ensure 50 per cent of all activities run by the youth organisation are not in cosy Scout halls but outside.
Whoever replaces previous chief executive Jim Duffy, who stepped down after 19 years in December, inherits a staffing shake-up which bucked the trend of cuts in the public and voluntary sectors by increasing headcount.
With the dropping of the Christian-specific pledge and the deployment of Bear Grylls as Chief Scout helping counter its sometimes old-fashioned image, Scouting has already seen many reforms.
In Scotland, groups are involved in delivering education via the curriculum for excellence, and the Scouting movement in Scotland, which has just recorded a 10th successive year of membership growth.
But that strength masks an ongoing struggle to find ways to reach areas of social and economic deprivation and rural areas, according to chair Moray Macdonald.
Local development officers - trialled in Ayrshire - are taking Scouting into new areas and communities, while a new volunteer management post will oversee the huge voluntary workforce which makes Scouting possible.
This will free the new head up to concentrate on partnerships with schools, communities and financial backers, Mr Macdonald said.
"We have a strategy taking us to 2018 and beyond but it has not been going quickly enough. We want to be growing in areas that we have previously found hard to reach," he said.
"We are looking for an effective leader who understands young people and will want to involve them in the organisation."
Scouts will sit on interview panel and help choose the charity's new boss.
Whoever it is needs to think creatively about how to overcome the barriers which have obstructed its mission to help young people in Scotland achieve their full potential as active citizens contributing to social change, Mr Macdonald adds.
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"In some areas that has meant not running sessions at all four age levels, or running after school clubs rather than full troops. In the prisons, while mums visit dads and kids get together to take part in a 45 minute Scout programme. We have a troop of disabled Scouts in Glasgow which for the most part takes part in all the activities any other Scout troop would do."
"This requires creative thinking. We know the traditional model won't work for everybody."