QUESTIONS and ANSWERS:

interactive table of content:

about us

info for non members, guests and membership applicants

info for our members

termination of membership

reservation system (takeactive)

behavior codex in our club, and how to solve conflicts, mediation needed ?

our Whatsapp groups and communication possibilities

about league competition games, teams, and tournaments

for young players, children, teenagers

training with our coaches

Corona ...

other sports in this club ?

The VfB Kiefholz e.V. is a registered sports club in Berlin, since 2004. The main kind of sport, played in our club, is Badminton. Other sports will be set up soon (cricket, Volleyball, indoor hockey). We let you know about other offers on the main homepage. But here we explain only about Badminton.

We are one of the largest Badminton clubs of Berlin, with about 425 members from more than 55 countries of this world. The main idea is to offer a possibility to meet and play together and practise this wonderful sport. All nations and kind of people and age are welcome, as long as you agree with the attitude to be open, friendly and polite to each other.

We are open for beginners as well as for very advanced players. We take part in the Berlin-Brandenburg league competition, currently with 5 league teams. Players with a desire for competition and exciting games against strong opponents will find space in our club as well.

We offer possibilities to play as well as coached lessons for various levels. Beside the league competition we organise internal tournaments and friendly matches against other clubs from time to time.

How can I try out to play Badminton in this club?

Generally yes, no problem, everybody is welcome to try it out. But we ask to send us a mail first, with a short presentation, who you are and what are your plans about Badminton and Sport. Nothing very detailed. Just a few words. Please include your first and last name, and the date and location you want to try to play with us. Especially now in times of Corona it is not possible to just show up. You need to send a message first and ask for a time slot. You find our schedule and gym locations here.

How can I become a member of this club?

You will find the online membership registration here. But we suggest to try it out before you start to register. Please play some times with us, and decide afterwards. And we want to know you as well, to make sure, that you match with the liberal, open and democratic ideas of the club and its statutes.

More possibilities to play once in a while and try it out?

Sometimes we offer time slot to play Badminton on a platform called "meetup". This is kind of a social network for different activities, may be even interesting for you to try out other sports or activities. Everybody can create a meetup account free of charge. You find the Badminton meetup group here. You will even find other opportunities to play at other gyms in other parts of Berlin, like Steglitz or Kreuzberg.

 What is the cost of the membership?

The membership fees will be decided and fixed by the club convention, which is held at least once a year. Currently (2024) the membership fee is 18 € per month, and 13 € for students and people without income and work. May change without further notice! People, who are already member of another Badminton club, get this discount as well. 

What is the club doing with the membership fees?

The most costly factor are the feather shuttles (more than 30.000 € per year). In difference to many other clubs our members don't have to bring their own shuttles. The shuttles are paid by the club (using the membership fees). The remaining funds are used to pay professional coaches (another 25.000 € per year, growing), to pay the contribution to the umbrella organisations LSB and BVBB (around 10000 € per year), and some more minor cost, for equipment like nets, posts, for an insurance and for the website.

The club can only exist due to the volunteer work of some club members and the club administration board. They invest a lot of efforts and time without getting paid, thus making this club running without having to pay excessive membership fees.

In which way and when the membership fees will be charged?

Usually we charge the membership fees at 10th of January, 10th of April, 10th of July and 10th of October, the amount of 3 month membership (54 € or 39 €). We charge by SEPA debit to your bank account. Exception: If you enter the club in February, May, August or November, the first charge will be for 2 month. If you enter the club in March, June, September or December, the first charge will be for one month.

I don't have a bank account and want to pay in cash or by transferring money by paypal, is this possible?

Yes, that is possible theoretically. In this case we accept yearly payment, or in the first year for the remaining month. Everybody, who wants to pay this way, please write to or speak with the president or with the club treasurer.

What does it mean to be a member of this club, legally?

A club membership is like an ongoing contract without any automatic expiration date. Once you are accepted as a member, you will stay to be a member of our club, with all rights and obligations, including being charged for the membership fees until you declare the wish to terminate your membership. 

How can I terminate the membership? How long do I owe the membership fees?

If you want to terminate your membership or have to because of change of living place, job, family reasons, injuries, or whatsoever, you just declare this wish. Every reasonable method is fine, and we do not have formal requirements. Even a simple sms or whatsapp message to one of the presidents is enough. Or send a mail. Or talk to the president or the treasurer.

You may cancel the membership every quarter, with a notice period of 1 month. For example, if you want to leave the club by end of December, please send us your message until End of November. If you wish to terminate at 30.6., please send the message or declare this until 31.5. Already paid membership fees will not be refunded.

What does it mean to be a member of this club, legally?

A club membership is like an ongoing contract without any automatic expiration date. Once you are accepted as a member, you will stay to be a member of our club, with all rights and obligations, including being charged for the membership fees until you declare the wish to terminate your membership. 

How can I terminate the membership? How long do I owe the membership fees?

If you want to terminate your membership or have to because of change of living place, job, family reasons, injuries, or whatsoever, you just declare this wish. Every reasonable method is fine, and we do not have formal requirements. Even a simple sms or whatsapp message to one of the presidents is enough. Or send a mail. Or talk to the president or the treasurer.

You may cancel the membership every quarter, with a notice period of 1 month. For example, if you want to leave the club by end of December, please send us your message until End of November. If you wish to terminate at 30.6., please send the message or declare this until 31.5. Already paid membership fees will not be refunded.

How can I make a reservation to play Badminton at one or more of the offered dates and times?

We are running a reservation system called "takeactive" for time slot booking. (App or website)

The time slots for an ongoing week can be booked from Monday 19:00.

In order to use the takeactive app or website, please send a mail to the club administration board and ask for participation, or send a WhatsApp message to Henrik.

Don't have a smartphone?

If you cannot or don't want to use a smartphone, you can use this time booking system by browser, at www.takeactive.com. How does this work? >>> takeactive booking software

More rules?

• An exception is Tuesday yet at Plänterwald. On Tuesday max. 1 time slot please, as the Tuesday always is overbooked.
• If your plans change and you have to cancel a reserved time slot, please edit your entry at "takeactive" app or website. If you will not show up that day at all, please delete all your entries for that day. And in the case, that the time slot was fully booked, please announce the free spot in our WhatsApp reservation group as well. You help your club mates.
• If the specific time window, you gonna cancel your spot, was not fully booked, you don't have to announce the change in the WA group. Just delete your entry.
• We ( the organisers of the club) try to help everybody. But please follow these rules. Otherwise it may happen, that a false entry (too much bookings per week, or missing last name, or forgot to select a time) will be deleted without further notice.
• Finally: if you are not on the participant list, you will not be able to play. Please register in advance !!! Thank you.

Do we have cleaning service personnel, taking care about my personal waste? Can I just drop banana peels or packagings?

No. ☠️ . Please everybody !!! take care about your garbage. And we recommend to think twice before leaving the gym, as our storage place for forgotten drinking bottles, rackets, clothes, smartphones and jewelry is limited and already overfilled.

Do we have certain rules in dealing with each other?

Sure, of course. Please remain friendly and respectful, even if you might disagree with one's opinion. Please no discrimination or insults. And one of our golden traditions: everybody is ready to play with everybody. No snobism please. Of course and logically people try to gather and compose games, and select double partners according to either sympathy and/or skill levels, or do want to play with their regular league team double partner. And it does not make sense for our "league team one" mixed double team to play against two beginners (as an example). But anyway, please try to maintain our golden tradition, which makes our club so unique among the Badminton clubs in this city.

Important: we have a conflict mediator in our club: Elaine. If any dispute or conflict between two club members or between a club member and the club administration cannot be solved, anybody may contact her: mail to Elaine

Can I play singles?

Yes, basically possible, and even desirable, as this is an indispensable way to achieve progress in your skills. But please no singles, if people are waiting outside for a possibility to play. Everybody will find enough possibilities to play singles at less popular time slots, such as Saturday evening or Sunday late evening. Please adjust your Badminton schedule according to your needs.

Can I bring or introduce friends?

Yes, that is possible. But they have to be preregistered as well. Furthermore, please think twice before persuading a real coach potato, a believer in "no sports please", or a 70 year old friend with no Badminton experience in the earlier life at all, as the threshold to be able to compete with the existing club members might be to high, or the physical condition might not be sufficient. Currently the Saturday afternoon or evening in Treptow is a good moment to bring friends. The Tuesday and the Sunday evening are intended to be exclusively for club members. More time slots during the week ?... work in progress.

Shuttlecocks / birdies / feathers ?

We have decided to use your membership fees to provide real feather shuttle cocks. But as this is the most expensive expense item in our club, with cost of more than 25.000 € every year, we ask everybody to be not too picky. Please use the shuttlecocks even then, if they are a little damaged, or fly a little bit slower. Remember: the change of flight characteristics affect both teams, it is not a special disadvantage just for you. The club neither can afford nor allow to throw shuttles into the garbage, which are yet in acceptable condition. We ask to use these feather shuttles in a responsible way. The fact, that they are always available does not mean, that they can be changed every 5-10 minutes.

Where to deposit really broken shuttles?

You will find boxes for "broken shuttles" at the side. This is the only place where to dispose broken shuttles. Please do not throw the shuttles just somewhere to the side, corner or below a bench ☠️. Remember: we do not have a cleaning staff, taking care about such thoughtlessness.

The floor is slippery. What can I do?

Good question. The answer: take the broom and collect the dust. Unfortunately this dust, which is causing awful slipperiness, is constantly produced by our movements. It's the abrasion from the floor and the shoe soles. Thus, 2-3 hours after sweeping the floor it usually gets slippery again: time for another use of the broom. Everybody !!! is invited to help removing this dust.

How to use the broom?

Well, sweeping the floor is easy. But the most important step is what to do after that. PLEASE !!! take the broom out of the gym and remove all the dust outside. You can use the metal fence of the courtyard, situated left side of the emergency door to strip off the dust. Disposing the dust somewhere inside the gym, e.g. at the side or in a corner ☠️ is nonsense and forbidden. 

What kind of WhatsApp groups exist?

We are running various WhatsApp groups, for different purpose. We will not publish the links for joining these groups here, to maintain privacy and prevent these groups from being invaded by hackers. Every new club member will get a welcome letter including the various links to our different groups. Please select the groups according to your needs. We recommend to join these groups by all means: "BadmintonReservation-VfB" and "BadminTreptowInfoChannel", to get always fresh information about changings, tournaments, and training sessions. The "social" group "Badminton-Treptow" is open for everybody, but please be ready to be disturbed from time to time, as chat is allowed there and sometimes used actively. 

Rules for using the WhatsApp groups?

• Yes. The "infoChannel" is not for chatting, only to inform members. Thus only admins can post.
• The "Reservation group" allows messaging for everybody. But please post only in the case of changings, for example if you canceled a time slot, to inform everybody else about the open spot. No chat there please.
• The "Badminton-Treptow" WhatsApp group is open for any chat regarding the club and Badminton themes. But please no political discussions, no discriminations, no insults or tasteless jokes, no gossip, no personal attacks. Members, who violate this rules, might be (temporarily) banned from the group, or in extreme cases even excluded from the club.
• We have some more groups, which help to organise special training groups or key service, or our league competition teams. If one of these groups make sense for you, you will be invited.

I want to have more challenge in my Badminton life and play league games, what has the club to offer to me?

Our club is member of the Badminton association Berlin-Brandenburg. Currently 7 league teams are fighting for points and success in various leagues of this BVBB. If you are interested to take part in this competition, ask our Vice-President for sport and competition for more details and possibilities to participate. The games usually take place in the winter time, from October until March. People, who are interested (and are eager to play, have reached a certain Badminton skill level), have to be registered first, and after a while the certificate of eligibility to play is issued by the BVBB. 

Can everybody join this league competition?

Well, legally yes, but you need to have reached a certain level, to avoid playing without any chance. Even in the lower class leagues the level is quite high, and the league is nothing for people, who play Badminton just for a little leisure. You have to be fit, you have to play regularly, and you need to be able to play at least the basic shots like forehand clear, backhand clear, service and drop in a correct way. Otherwise the league games will not be funny for you.

I am interested to play tournaments from time to time, what are the possibilities?

• from time to time our club offers internal fun tournaments. Every club member will be invited some weeks before.
• the BVBB is offering ranking tournaments from time to time. This is an offer for our league team members to play, to compete with other players from all over Berlin (various levels), and to improve the personal ranking position within the BVBB.
• other clubs organise tournaments as well, small ones as well as huge tournaments. If such a tournament will be offered, we inform our club members. Sometimes the club has to register you, sometimes everybody has to register and participate on his/her own behalf.
• if tournaments for doubles (mm or ww or m/w mixed) are offered, but you need a partner, you may use our whatsapp groups to search a companion.

What has the club to offer for children and teenagers?

Since 2023 we offer coached training and play time for children and youth members. Currently on Monday 16:00-19:00, Wednesday 16:00-17:30 and Saturday 10:30-12:00, at our new gym in Hänselstraße 14. If you have children who want to play or learn to play Badminton, send a mail to our youth director Darko: mail to Darko

Does the club offer training?

Yes, we offer various possibilities to take part in training lessons. The times and possibilities are always published through WA.

1.) We offer training for beginners and less advanced on Mondays and Saturdays. Included to the membership fee.

2.) We offer training for league team players every Wednesday evening and Saturday afternoon. Included to the membership fee.

Individual and intensive training is offered too?

Every club member is free to ask our coaches for individual training during time slots, who are not used for the club or are not fully crowded. We have 6 coaches working in our club. Please send a message to Henrik, if you are interested in individual training.

This kind of training is not included to the membership fee, but you will get really nice conditions. Please ask your future coach.

see here

What other kind of sports are offered in this club?

Basically we offer or will offer Cricket, Volleyball, Beachvolleyball, may be indoor hockey, and there are even more projects like Yoga or table tennis. Once these sports are established, you will find a link on the main page of this website.