Keen to boost its numbers, the Bermuda Scout Association hosted a visiting UK commissioner to explore “more flexible leadership roles” for time-pressed adult volunteers.However, if changes are made to the Scouts, making the organisation co-ed is unlikely to be one of them.“I don’t see it happening,” said Geoffrey Rothwell, Chief Commissioner for the local branch. “Traditionally in Bermuda, it’s been separate, with the Scouts and the Girl Guides — although obviously we have cooperated with and supported each other.”And the International Commissioner for the Scout Association Nigel Hailey, who spent the weekend on Paget Island with local Scouts, said it was probably “too early to ‘go there’ in Bermuda”.Scouts in the UK accepted girls decades ago, although the Girl Guides are maintained there as well, he said.“I think, at the moment, we need to get Scouting up and running, and develop the Scouting community, before we look at something like that.”Now in its 102nd year, the Bermuda Scout Association has seen its presence dwindle in recent times — but not, Dr Rothwell added, due to any decline in its popularity.“There’s no shortage of children,” he said. “One thing we don’t want is to end up with huge numbers of children the Scouts if we don’t have adults to make the system viable.“At the moment, we’re trying to see how many are willing to step forward, and it would be nice to get older Scouts. At one point we had hundreds of Scouts.”Mr Hailey noted that, currently, the Island has one troupe for Cub Scouts, and two Scout troupes.The UK official timed his visit to join local Scouts on Paget Island over the weekend, for the Island Jamboree, before strategising this week with local members “to talk about driving the Scouts forward”.“The idea is to open a number of new Scout groups around the Island, so that the Scouts are nearer to people, and to spread the load around,” Mr Hailey said. “In the UK, the Chief Scout is Bear Grylls, who is extremely well known.“We have the same problem there, in that we get a lot of young people wanting to join. Bear Grylls is also talking a lot about adults coming to help set up groups.“What we’re looking at will be flexible leadership roles that people can take on. If an adult can give, say, one Friday a month, then we want to build a team and make it happen.”Both men and women can volunteer for Bermuda’s Scouts, where participants from age eight and above learn practical skills that Mr Hailey called “window dressing, to a certain extent, to getting young people working in teams, looking out for each other and developing their social skills by working with different people, as well as building their own self reliance”.Activities over the weekend included abseiling on Paget Island cliffs.“Part of what also happens in Scouts is getting them to face some of their fears,” Dr Rothwell said. “There’s a look of joy on their faces when you see them do something they thought they were unable to do.”scouts.org.uk.