“The support from the board members is great”

Without them, there would be a huge gaping hole at ASKÖ Ried. We are talking about Peter Prokop, the chairman of the large club with currently around 350 members, and Tina Schmidbauer, secretary, head of the women’s gymnastics and tennis section. The duo is one of around 200,000 volunteers who volunteer in the 2,500 sports clubs in Upper Austria.

In 2012, Prokop joined the association as secretary and has been chairman since 2019. “I had to think twice about taking the job. Of course, I discussed this with my family beforehand, because you can’t just do a job like that on the side. It was simply important to me to make a difference in the club. We have a lot going on in sport and socially, which is why I really enjoy the task despite all the effort”says the 41-year-old, who has two children, Tim (9) and Leonie (14), with his wife Melanie and works in internal sales. “The support of all board members is great, otherwise such an office as chairman would be very difficult to exercise”, says Prokop, who is elected until 2024. When asked if he will stand for another three years, Neuhofner replies: “I assume there is still a lot to do.”

Tina Schmidbauer (32) has been secretary since 2019, and the mother of two has been active for ASKÖ Ried for much longer as section leader and gymnast. “I think it’s important to volunteer. My parents have always taught me that”, says Schmidbauer, whose father himself was section head of ASKÖ Ried for many years. Schmidbauer has also been involved with the Ried volunteer fire brigade for a long time.