SMiSA News

SMiSA Members Discretionary Spend Ballot

Dear members

As you know we wrote to a few weeks back with a link to an online survey asking where you would like to see SMISA invest the £2 proportion of your monthly membership fee.

The plan is to spend the pot every three months and what you told us in the survey will help inform future decisions over how we do that.

The survey is now closed but more than 550 of you took the time to fill it out – and your feedback was hugely helpful.

There were a couple of questions – the first one asked you to rank a number of areas by importance and the second to submit any ideas you had for specific projects.

We’ve now been through the results and you can see the full answers to the first question through this link

As you can see, the youth academy was your top priority, but there was also broad support for investment in club facilities of different kinds.

On the whole, members are happy to see money spent on St Mirren-related community projects although other areas were given higher priority.

Investment in the first-team squad was the one area which split opinion – 31% of you didn’t feel it was a suitable use of the money but almost 70% did, with 44% calling it important or very important.

Clearly we won’t be able to keep everybody happy on that point, but we could in future suggest first-team investment alongside other options and ask members to vote – that way the membership as a whole decide if the money goes there or not.

The second question saw some interesting feedback and some really good ideas and we have already had an initial chat with Gordon about how some of them might work in future.

We grouped the answers to those questions together to pick out key themes and three came out as the most mentioned.

As you might expect, youth development and the first team budget were two, and the other which repeatedly came up was investment in disabled facilities.

Leaving the money in the pot to allow bigger investment in the future was another suggestion some of you made and that may be an option we offer at various points.

But for now we have the question of what to do with the first three months of money – there is £8,500 available from the July, August and September income.

As part of the process we asked the club where they wanted investment – and their number one priority is for us to make a contribution towards the disabled platform they plan to build at the back of the main stand.

Currently, wheelchair-bound fans are housed at the front of the stands, and there is a lack of shelter during bad weather – a long-standing issue the new board have committed to fix.

This work would also allow the stadium to regain UEFA Gold Licence status – an honour it lost when the criteria for a raised disabled platform was added.

The club has the necessary permissions in place and has managed to secure some of the funding for this project but not all.

The total project cost is yet to be finalised but they reckon the shortfall will be around £6,000-7,000 and have asked if SMISA can meet that.

All things considered it seems the obvious place for this first tranche of #BuyTheBuds money to go – we want member money to go into visible projects which will make a difference to fans and this strikes us as a perfect example.

There will be points in the future where we will offer members a choice of projects and ask you to pick between them – but in this case we felt that wasn’t needed when there was only one thing the club asked us to fund and lots of our members are telling us they want that very project.

So we are proposing to make the full £8,500 available to the club to cover as much as they need to complete the platform – however we would like the members to decide what should happen with however much of that is left over.

There are two choices we would invite you to vote on –

1) Make £8,500 available for the disabled platform and put any leftover sum into the St Mirren youth academy budget

2) Make £8,500 available for the disabled platform and keep any leftover sum in the SMISA £2 pot for spending at a future date.

You will be able to cast your vote via secure online ballot and you will receive a separate email with a link allowing you to do so. If you have any issues accessing the ballot or didn't receive it please contact us.

Voting will close at midnight on Sunday 2 October and we will email members with the results.

We and the club will be working behind the scenes to cost some other projects for possible inclusion in future spending rounds – the next one will likely be in January.

As always, if you have any questions you can contact us via [email protected]

Kyle Gunn interviews SMISA director David Nicol

Saints fan and budding journalist Kyle Gunn recently caught up with David Nicol, SMISA’s representatives on the St Mirren board, and wrote this article for us. Thanks to Kyle for taking the time to do so...

I began the interview by asking David how it feels to be on the board of directors as the SMiSA representative. He told me: “I'm very proud to be the first fans board representative. It's still quite surreal to be in the boardroom. 

“I have been a Saints fan since I was a boy, but sadly was never good enough to make it as a player, so this is definitely the next best thing!”

So what ideas does David have club going forward? “I think the most crucial thing we have to do is ensure stability while we transition from the old board to the new board. 

“I believe we can do a lot more to take advantage of our location and proximity to the airport, and this is something we are actively pursuing.

“Given the recent issues, I would also like to see the club review the kit supply options when the current contract expires. It's important to balance the commercial aspects of the deal with the service and quality that the fans get.” 

David couldn't comment any further on the strip situation, apart from to say “the board is aware that this is not a good experience for the fans and will be picking up with JD”

David then went on to explain what his role on the board will be. He said: ”More generally my role is to be the link between the fans and the board, so if fans have ideas for revenue generation I can bring these to the board for consideration. 

“Not every idea will be taken forward, but Gordon and the board are ready to try new approaches and are open to new ideas.”

In terms of what David hopes he can bring to the the role “Short term, I will establish the relationship between SMiSA and the board, and develop the role of the supporters board rep. 

“I need to work out exactly how the club and SMiSA will interact and manage any areas of disagreement/crossover. We want SMiSA and the club working hand in hand and working towards common goals.

“We will need to outline the process for electing the fans director and agree this with the club. We also have to finalise the process for how the discretionary funds will be spent. 

“As the first supporters board rep I also want to write the 'job description' for my successors. The club expects (and needs!) the supporters elected director to actively contribute to the club’s operations and strategic goals, over the next few months I will outline what the expectations are to give potential future representatives an idea of what will be expected of them.

As a time scale for the above goals David said “Ideally I would like to have the above in place over the next three to four months.”

David ended the interview with this message for the Saints fans “I think the most important thing is for the fans to get behind the new owners. The old board did a great job, but by their admission, the club needed a change.

“We have given fans a real voice in the new ownership structure. It will take a bit of time to get things right, but the guys on the board are working hard to make things better.”

Thank you to David for his honesty throughout the interview.

August Membership Update

Welcome to the latest update from the trust committee.

It’s now been around six weeks since our joint bid for the club with Gordon Scott went through and we’ve continued to be busy behind the scenes.

It’s been a massive transition for us, with our member numbers going from 200 to nearly 1,400 and our annual income from four figures to six, but we feel we now have the back-end admin and financial processes we need in place to deal with that increase in workload.

Our member numbers have held pretty steady throughout August and as of the end of the month were sitting at 1,370.

Along the way we have lost a few and gained a few and we expect that is how it will be – we know from our discussions with friends at the Foundation of Hearts that numbers will vary.

Obviously it is important we maintain our numbers as the years go on and we aim to do that by showing members the benefit their money is having on St Mirren and the local community.

The £2 per month members pot

With that in mind, we will soon be in a position to start investing your cash in the club.

As we told you last month, the plan is to spend the £2 ringfenced from each member’s monthly subscription on a quarterly basis.

The September subscriptions will be the third tranche of #BuyTheBuds money, meaning we will have in the region of £8,000 to invest in the club as the members choose at some point soon.

The plan is for the SMISA committee to speak to the club about their priorities for investment, to survey members over their priorities and ideas, and compile all of that into several costed spending options through which members will vote via secure online ballot.

We are still finalising the details of the exact procedure through which we will do this, but will be in touch with members soon regarding the next steps.

SMISA director and club matters

As you know, SMISA committee member David Nicol is now on the board of the club. Dave’s feedback from the first of the board meetings is that they have been really positive and that Gordon Scott in particular has lots of ideas he wants to implement at the club.

On club matters, it is important to again stress that SMISA is not directly responsible for club business – the club board control club operations, as has always been the case.

But the benefit to having a SMISA rep on the board is that we have a man in the room who can raise issues which matter to our members.

If there is something you wish Dave to raise for possible consideration at a club board meeting then let us know via [email protected]

We would also remind you that Dave’s appointment is only temporary for the time being – we plan to hold an election before the end of the year where members will choose who will do the job over the longer-term.

Open meeting – 5 September

To give members a chance to speak directly with the SMISA committee and to raise any issues they wish to discuss, we will be having a drop-in session during one of our regular meetings.

We will be in the back room at Saporito Coffee in Gauze Street, Paisley, on Monday 5 September between 7 and 8pm.

If there is anything you want to talk to us about, please pop by.

Events and benefits update

We ran our first public event since #BuyTheBuds became reality when more than 100 fans joined us for a fan party in the library cafe at the University of the West of Scotland after the Morton game.

Gordon Scott, Alex Rae and Tony Fitzpatrick joined us and addressed the crowd, as did SMISA chair George Adam and director Dave Nicol.

We want to thank everybody for coming along, as well as UWS for hosting and Billy Gray for being DJ on the night.

We have also started to roll out the benefits due to those who signed up the #BuyTheBuds through the £2,500 premium package – with some of those members joining the squad during the official team photo last week.

Some of the £25 per month members have also been picked to enjoy directors guest lounge access at the Paisley 2021 Stadium for home games.

Paul Wycherley was the man chosen from the hat for the Hibs game and we'll announce the winner for the the Queen of the South game on Saturday 10th shortly.

We are also working on plans for the first of the exclusive £25 per month members events, and hope to have more free events for all members at some point too.

In the meantime, you can contact us via [email protected] if there are any queries.

The SMISA Committee

 

July Membership Update

Member numbers
 
We are conscious we haven't updated you on member numbers since our joint bid for the majority stake in the club with Gordon Scott was completed last month.
 
As of 3 August we had 1,373 members of the trust - numbers have actually crept up slightly since the deal was completed. Of that, around 12% are on the £25 per month membership, which is slightly ahead of our initial target of 10%. 
 
We had always said 1,000 was the minimum we needed to hit to trigger the deal - we are thrilled to have smashed that and want to thank every one of you for signing up.
 
The more members the trust has, the stronger we are financially and the greater our ability to benefit the club.
 
There is no upper limit on members, so please keep spreading the word to fellow fans that anybody can still sign up now at smisa.net
 
Spending trust income
 
As you know, the bulk of our income is going towards the share purchase and saving up the cash ultimately needed to buy out Gordon and achieve fan ownership.
 
But £2 per month from each member will be ring-fenced to be spent on the club as you choose, and at current membership levels, that is just over £8,000 per quarter. 
 
We are still finalising the details of the procedure for spending this but the plan is for us to survey members on where they want to see the money spent, speak to club about where they need investment, and compile the results into a shortlist of options for members to vote on via secure online ballot.
 
We hope to repeat this process every three months, meaning members will get four votes per year. We feel this will be a really good way to keep the membership engaged, while deciding how their money will help the club.
 
SMISA director
 
As has already been announced, Gordon Scott has asked SMISA committee member Dave Nicol to join the board of St Mirren as the SMISA representative.
 
Gordon was keen there be some continuity with the guys who had worked with him over the past year, and Dave - who had led on the financial and legal aspects of the deal from SMISA's side - was the obvious choice.

However Dave's appointment was only ever intended to be temporary, as one of the key points of the #BuyTheBuds campaign was that SMISA members elect their own director.
 
We are still working on a procedure through which this will happen, but the plan is to hold an election for members to elect one of their own on to the board before the end of the year.
 
It is important to stress that as things stand SMISA are only the part-owners of the club - ultimately Gordon controls the majority stake.
 
In practice, the club will be run by the board, as it always has been. But the key difference is that board now contains a SMISA rep, who can raise issues on your behalf for potential discussion.
 
If you wish to raise an issue with the SMISA director, you can do so by emailing [email protected]
 
Events and member benefits
 
We will have a number of events this coming season - the first being a fan party to celebrate the success of the bid after the Morton game on Saturday in the library at UWS. Entry is free but tickets are required. To sign up and for full details see our Eventbrite page
 
There will also be a number of events for those of you on the £25 per month and £2,500 premium packages - we are still working on these but will be in touch with details as soon as they are confirmed.
 
We will also be running a draw for each home game this season for a £25 per month member and a guest to watch that game from the director's guest lounge.
 
Cameron Sanderson was the lucky winner for the Morton game. The rest of you in that membership category have around a one in ten chance of winning at some point - we will be in touch if you do!
 
Football Pink Magazine Article
 
The Football Pink Magazine are writing a piece about St Mirren's Scottish Cup win from 1987 and along with some interviews from players from the team they're looking for fans' views and memories of the occasion. If you were there that day and don't mind answering a few questions about the game please drop as an email and we'll forward them on.
 
Contact details

Finally, we want to ask members to keep us updated with any change in your details using our contact page.
 
If you've changed your email address or phone number, we want to make sure you don't miss out on any events or benefits due to you.
 
All our updates will come from [email protected] so please add this to your address book to ensure our emails to you don't end up in junk mail.
 
Thanks
The SMISA Committee
 

SMISA sponsors Panda Club for another year

SMISA has continued its sponsorship of the Panda Club for another season

The Edinburgh City game saw some of the SMISA committee present a cheque to the club for £2,500 as part of our ongoing commitment to the club.

The Panda Club is open to boys and girls aged between five and 12 and membership is free. Kids can go along to home games, get one hour of football coaching in the Airdome and a ticket for the match.

We are delighted to help support the next generation of Saints fans and look forward to helping the club with more of this type of community work in the future.

More info on how to join the Panda Club is on the Official Website.

Fan Party - Sat 6th August

Saturday, August 6, 2016 from 5:00 PM - 8:30 PM
 

St Mirren fans just became part-owners of their club - and we're having a party! The SMISA team is marking last week's takeover by hosting a fan party at the University of the West of Scotland after the Morton game on Saturday 6 August.

We are hoping new club chairman Gordon Scott, chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick and team boss Alex Rae will all be there on the day to welcome fans to the event. There will be a bottle bar, and hot food for sale, while Saints fan and DJ Billy Gray will be providing the tunes until the event closes.

The event will be in the cafe at the library in the Paisley Campus of the University of the West of Scotland. Enter via the pedestrianised section of Storie Street, beside the student flats. Entry is FREE but be aware capacity is limited to 250 so it is essential anybody who wishes to come along register here to get their ticket - please bring your ticket on the night either as a print-out or on your phone.

You don't need to be a SMISA member to attend - the event is open to all Saints fans. Due to the venue's license, the event is open to over 18s only. Doors will open at 5pm with the event to start around 5.30pm. We hope to see as many of you as possible there, hopefully after another Renfrewshire derby win! If you need more info, drop us a line at [email protected]

 

 

Congratulations St Mirren fans. You just #BoughtTheBuds

Congratulations, you just #BoughtTheBuds

We are delighted to announce that the legal formalities around SMISA’s joint offer for a majority shareholding in the club with Gordon Scott were concluded earlier today, meaning the trust is now the proud part-owner of St Mirren FC.

This means 21 July 2016 can go down as a landmark moment in St Mirren’s long and proud history – today saw the right to decide what happens with our club pass into the hands of the people who care about it most...you.

For those of us on the committee, the past year has involved an incredible amount of work and we are both proud and delighted to have finally seen the deal over the line.

Again, we want to thank the 1,300 of you who signed up to #BuyTheBuds, as without that show of support we would not have been able to make history today.

We appreciate there will be few questions about what will happen next, and hopefully these will be answered below...

With the deal completed, Gordon now owns a 50.1% stake in the club, while SMISA own 28%. Crucially, SMISA now has the option to buy the shares Gordon buys now at the price he pays now within the next ten years, and thus achieve majority fan ownership of the club.

Five of the six members of the current board will now step down and we want to pay tribute to them for all they have done for the club over the years, as they can be justifiably proud of their legacy.

Four new directors will be appointed and the new board will include Gordon (as the new chairman), club chief exec Tony Fitzpatrick, and financial advisor Alan Wardrop, while current club director and company secretary Chris Stewart will stay in place.

Gordon has also asked SMISA board member David Nicol to join him as the temporary trust representative on the St Mirren board for the next few months.

The SMISA committee will use that time to finalise a procedure for members to elect one of their own to serve as their voice in the St Mirren boardroom.

At the same time, we have already started work on a procedure through which our members can vote to choose how the £2 portion of their monthly membership will be spent on the club. Once we have firmed up arrangements for both of these issues, we will put the details before members.

We are also working on plans for a fan party to take place in a town centre venue after the Morton game on Saturday 6 August to help usher in the new era, with details of that to be announced soon.

Once again, thank you all for your support and we look forward to writing the next chapter in the history of our club together.

SMiSA Committee

#BuyTheBuds July Update

Dear members,

This post is to give you a brief update on the latest status of #BuyTheBuds, SMISA’s joint bid with Gordon Scott for the majority shareholding of the club.

In our last update two weeks ago we said we would be taking the first set of your payments in the first week of July, and we hoped to complete the legal formalities needed to conclude the deal by the start of the season.

While we haven’t quite managed to get that over the line in time for Saturday’s game against Livingston, the good news is we expect to do so in the next week or so.

Obviously a deal of this complexity has required a fair bit of legal input and we are sure you appreciate the importance of all parties taking the time needed to get things right.

The first set of member payments are safely in the bank and will allow us to make the first of our monthly repayments to the consortium.

Should everything go to plan, by the time the league season kicks off with the Renfrewshire derby on 6 August, Gordon will have assembled a new board for the start of a new era for our club.

As it stands member numbers are sitting at around 1,300 but we would remind you there is no upper limit and we don’t want it to stop there – if you meet other fans at the games who haven’t yet signed up to have a say in how their club is run they can still do so at smisa.net now.

In the meantime, the SMISA committee has been busy behind the scenes working on a new set of processes and structures for how the trust will organise its affairs and involve our vastly-increased membership in trust decisions.

Should the deal be completed as planned, we hope to be able to put details of that work to you in the near future, once it is fully developed.

We are also looking forward to getting back to watching some football again, and hopefully we’ll see as many of you as possible at Livingston tomorrow.

Things are looking good for the club on and off the park right now and under the new regime we will have the power to keep that going.

‘Mon the Saints
The SMISA committee

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