At the general meeting on December 2nd, the DOSB is planning to change the statutes, which will enable the DOSB Executive Board to pay expense allowances. This causes discussions in advance.
Coaches and groundskeepers, club directors, department heads and auditors, organized sport in Germany is based on voluntary work. And at the highest level, at the top of the DOSB around President Thomas Weikert, volunteers also work unpaid. That could change soon: At the upcoming DOSB general meeting on December 2nd, agenda item 16 of the proposed resolution provides for a change to the statutes, which should make it possible in the future “Appropriate flat-rate allowances for expenses are paid to members of the Executive Board.”
What does “appropriate” mean?
In other words: The members of the executive committee want to be paid for their voluntary work in the future. The motion for a resolution for the general meeting is justified by the fact that members of the presidium “Be compensated within an appropriate framework for lost professional income” can. DOSB President Weikert is a lawyer, Vice President Kerstin Holze is a doctor.
The initiative by the DOSB leadership is already causing discussions in advance. He doesn’t think much of the proposal, explained Martin Engelhardt, President of the German Triathlon Union, to Deutschlandfunk. Above all, the question arises as to what “appropriate” means in this context. “There are very different rumors. Some say it’s 2,500 euros a month per person, another says between 5,000 and 6,000 euros, another says 8,000 euros. To be honest, I don’t think that’s appropriate.”continued Engelhardt.
principle of Non-profit status
It is not yet clear how high the planned expense allowance should be. There are of course a lot of rumors, explained DOSB Vice President Holze on Deutschlandfunk, but the DOSB Presidium decides neither on the amount nor on a framework. Both should then be made up of an ad hoc commission “expert persons proposed by the member organizations”establish.
What the “appropriate framework” could look like in the end depends on various factors, says Franz-Martin Schäfer, head of legal advice at the German Foundation for Engagement and Volunteering (DSEE). “To put it bluntly: We’re not just making a wish, but it has to be based on the principle of non-profit status. Non-profit status is a very valuable asset.”says Schäfer. This means that no person should be advantaged by disproportionately high remuneration.
In principle, the legislature allows a tax-free volunteer allowance of 840 euros per year. Higher compensation is possible, but is then subject to tax and social security contributions. It can be assumed that the flat rates from the DOSB Presidium will break the 840 euro limit. “There are people with rank and name at the DOSB. So in that respect, there are already larger sums of money involved.”says Prof. Frank Daumann from the University of Jena, who deals with quality management in sports organizations.
The factors that play a role in calculating an expense allowance are the size of the association, how extensive the time commitment of the individual members of the executive board is, how much training time is necessary in order to represent topics professionally to the outside world and whether a full-time apparatus takes on certain tasks. explains DSEE lawyer Schäfer.
The DOSB has a full-time board of directors, which currently consists of five people and is responsible for operational business. The ten-member DOSB executive committee oversees the work of the board and is responsible for the strategic direction of the umbrella organization and German sport. “I can well imagine that the work of the executive committee will change to some extent”says Schäfer, “The result can be a certain level of demands on the part of the association and the members towards the people who receive remuneration. So more commitment is demanded.”
The money is missing elsewhere
There is controversy about how sensible it is to pay for honorary positions. “It is important that you are aware of the opportunities and risks it entails”says Schäfer. From Schäfer’s point of view, there is one main argument against the remuneration: “If I make payments to my presidium members who have previously worked on a voluntary basis, the money I spend will no longer be available for charitable purposes.”
Given the sums per month reported by Engelhardt and a ten-person executive committee, there would be an annual expenditure of between 120,000 and 960,000 euros for the planned expense allowance. At the same time, the DOSB has been complaining for years that sport in Germany is lacking money. Membership fees are an essential basis for financing the DOSB. These are to be increased on January 1, 2025, according to another agenda item for the upcoming general meeting. Accordingly, in the future, every professional association should pay fourteen cents to the DOSB instead of nine cents per member.
DOSB argues Facilitated access
The DOSB argues that the expense allowance opens the door for more people to volunteer. In response to a request from the sports show, the umbrella organization announced that: “People, regardless of their age or their professional and financial background, should have the chance to get involved in such a responsible and resource-intensive volunteer position in the DOSB.”
But whether remuneration actually has an impact on the composition of the DOSB Presidium and thereby what the DOSB wants “Expertise of different social actors” can be depicted will only become apparent in two years at the earliest. Because the resolution proposal comes halfway through the DOSB Presidium’s legislative period. Weikert and Co. stood for election under the premise of unpaid volunteerism.
Many things remain unclear before the DOSB general meeting on December 2nd. The question now is whether the change to the statutes will simply be approved there or whether there is still a need for discussion. About whether the Presidium will be able to pay for its work in the future.