69Conclusion Sports clubs in Germany More than just exercise The Sport Development Report is published in its seventh wave and provides important information on the development of sports clubs in Germany over the last 15 years Contrary to the fears of ma jor club extinction the results of the first seven waves show that the club landscape in Germany is alive and well and that sports clubs play an important role in society Around 90 000 sports clubs with around 27 million memberships and around 8 million honorary and volunteer workers at all levels of the clubs are numbers that underline the great importance of sports clubs in Germany Nevertheless sports clubs in Germany are confronted with social developments that pose challenges especially in the field of volunteer work This is where the clubs and associations need to take action in order to offer support benefits that suit the volun teers and provide them with targeted support for their work The additional stakeholder surveys of the Sport Development Report provide important insights in this respect Above all we see the po sitive benefits of qualifications on satisfaction motivation and the future plans of volunteers Clubs and associations should therefore strive to increase the rate of training among volunteers In this con text it is helpful to name a caretaker in the club who is responsible for further and advanced training programmes and who is available as a contact person for the volunteers A review of existing formats appears to be particularly useful for the boards The increased bureaucratic requirements that are placed on the clubs must also be viewed critically The clubs feel increasingly burdened by the number of laws and regulations This is consistent with the fact that the clubs seem to lack support from politics This is particularly problematic considering that clubs are primarily or ganised on a voluntary basis and that increased complexity which is also associated with increased time commitments from the volun teers is difficult for the volunteers to cope with On the other hand it is very hard to envisage their replacement by paid work Only a small proportion of clubs have a paid management position In this

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