Responding quickly to the pandemic

“The title is ‘Board of the Year’, but in our case it should be called ‘Club of the Year’,” says TSV Lengfeld’s President Wolfgang Hobiger, right at the beginning of the conversation with the editorial team. While the pandemic plunged many private individuals and associations into a crisis, the Lengfeld association was able to use the time to rebuild. Without the sticking together and participation of every individual in the club, that would not have been possible, the club president is sure of that.

The work of TSV Lengfeld

According to Hobiger, the “TSV Lengfeld” has around 1700 members, spread over 13 sports departments. “We cover almost all sports,” says the club’s president, “from football to popular sports to cricket”. A carnival company is also part of the association.

The most important thing is always that the members have fun and can do their sport, says Hobiger. This requires a functioning structure with committed department heads and an organized board. Above all, all of the work takes a lot of time, a resource that the previous board member lacked. A change of personnel had been in the room for a long time. However, it was not intended that this would take place precisely during the pandemic.

Replacement of the club positions

“That was our greatest lesson from the pandemic,” says Hobiger with a laugh, “you can plan as much as you want, in the end you have to be flexible and fast.” The constant changing of the regulations on the part of politics made it impossible to act, instead, at most, it was possible to react. But that is exactly what succeeded, even with the change in personnel.

Offices such as the presidium, the sports directorate and the administration had to be filled. “Those responsible up to now will remain with the association in other offices and well-known members have been appointed for the positions that have become vacant,” explains Hobiger of the new appointments. He himself was also elected as the new president of the association in the course of the personnel change. He has been a member of the association for more than 50 years. “In 1968 I was on the pitch for TSV for the first time,” remembers the club president with a smile.

How the “TSV Lengfeld” handled the pandemic

In addition to the new appointments, the club administration asked itself during the pandemic how they could keep the people busy. Hobiger particularly remembers three main decisions. “First of all, we reduced the membership fees for the individual departments and made video training possible as far as possible,” he says, emphasizing how crucial the department heads’ commitment was? especially when switching to online training.

Another idea arose during one of the training sessions via video: an internal competition in which the participants can collect points during the lockdown by doing sports. “Whether it was jogging, riding or playing ball games, it didn’t matter,” explains Hobiger. Prizes were advertised in the form of money and vouchers and whoever had collected the most points at the end of the competition won. All the measures were able to prevent a decline in membership.

Club president on the importance of clubs

“Such a club gives you role models and reference persons right from the start,” answered the club president when asked about the added value of a club. 50 years ago he learned from his then board member what “support and voluntary commitment from the heart” meant. Hobiger wants to pass this on together with the TSV and his department heads and thus inspire young people for club sport. “Prizes like the ‘Board of the Year’ are of course an honor and, above all, an appreciation for our work”, the club president thanks for the award.