We have scheduled SMiSA's Annual General Meeting this year for Tuesday 22nd April 2025 at 7pm. It will take place within the hospitality suite at the SMiSA Stadium, and all members are eligible and welcome to attend. 

The AGM will look back on what has been achieved in the past year as well as ahead to 2025/26.

 The AGM notice, including our annual accounts, will be issued 14 days prior to the meeting, along with your invitation to vote on all AGM business. A link will also be included within this notice so that you can register your attendance if you wish to attend the 2025 SMiSA AGM (in-person or online).

The AGM notice will include the election of the SMiSA board. As it stands, four of the nine places will be vacant vacant and will be open for election as per our rules. Five elected members will continue to serve for at least another year as none have reached three years on their current term. They are Alex Dillon, Stuart Chawk, Jack Mcskeane, Dougie McMahon and Jim Cumming. SMiSA board members Stewart Gilmour and Willie Bell have reached the end of their three-year term and will step down. Both Stewart and Willie are eligible to apply to be re-elected to the SMiSA Board, along with any other candidates who put themselves forward. 

HOW TO APPLY

Any SMiSA members who wish to put themselves forward for election to the SMiSA board can do so now. Board members are expected to attend fortnightly meetings (held on Monday evenings) and make a meaningful contribution, both in terms of their time and the quality of their input. 

Anybody who would like to stand should email [email protected] and request an application form. You will need to be nominated by two other SMiSA members and have been a member for at least 90 days prior to the date nominations close which is Tuesday April 1st at 5pm. 

You will also need to submit a 500-word statement explaining why you would like to be elected and submit a photo for the election page on the SMiSA website. Voting will run for ten days from April 8th, with results announced at the AGM. 

As always, if there is anything you wish to speak to us about we can be contacted via [email protected]. 

SMiSA recently reached out to our members regarding an issue created by an administrative exercise by our membership management company, VeryConnect, affecting Direct Debit mandates for around 50% of SMISA members. Click here to read about the circumstances.

The issue meant that some members were required to approve their January payment via. an email from payment handlers GoCardless. From over 500 members initially affected, the SMiSA Board have undertaken a huge communications campaign (including individual phone calls to members) to reduce the number to around 75 members still required to approve their payment.

There are 54 affected members who do not have a contact number on their SMiSA profile. Due to GDPR, SMiSA can’t publish a list of these members.

We will send out an email to those who still need to approve their January payment tonight (Wednesday 29th January) at 8pm.

Could we ask ALL members to check their inbox and JUNK folders for an email from [email protected].

If you receive this email it indicates you ARE affected. On receipt of the email, please look for an email from [email protected] asking you to approve January’s payment. Please action this, then reply to the SMiSA email to confirm.

Failure to authorise January’s payment will void your membership, reducing the amount of financial support SMiSA receives AND directly impacts the support St Mirren FC receive from SMiSA.

Your support in this exercise is greatly appreciated, as we attempt to limit the damage caused by the administrative exercise as much as possible.

For all Buddies, the 16th May 1987 was a very special day in the history of our club. Coventry City fans are exactly the same.

We have been in touch with a group of Sky Blues supporters who are keen to see the return leg of the 1987 challenge match concluded.

At this time of the year as both Coventry City and St Mirren embark on this season's cup adventures, we would like to note our support for this and have initiated discussions with the SMFC Chief Operating Officer and Club Board to investigate the feasibility of the second leg tie being arranged.

Members of Sky Blue Army SC promoting the 2nd leg push

Best of luck to Coventry City in the FA Cup, as they move into the Fourth Round following their win on penalties vs Sheffield Wednesday last week. It would be great to see both clubs back in our respective finals and lifting silverware once again!

The first leg of the final, in December 1987, was drawn 1-1 at Highfield Road. David Phillips put the Sky Blues ahead before Kenny McDowall equalised for the Buddies.

But despite the tie being finely poised, a second leg scheduled for St Mirren’s former Love Street home never took place, with congested fixture lists and lack of interest primarily blamed.

Best Regards,

The SMiSA Board

We have been made aware of new emails being sent from both VeryConnect and GoCardless to our members regarding their subscription payments, so we are providing some clarification around these emails and why they are being sent. 

These new emails are a result of the exercise undertaken by VeryConnect in December last year, to allow all membership payments to be managed through their platform. We would like to note that the SMiSA board were unaware that these issues would arise following this exercise, and apologise for any inconvenience or confusion.

With all payments now being initiated by our VeryConnect platform, this is why all members will now receive a 'payment confirmation' receipt email from "[email protected]". An example of the contents of this email is shown below:

As well as this email, members are being sent an email from GoCardless (who are our payment handlers). The contents of this email depend on when you signed up to SMiSA.

PAYMENT APPROVAL EMAIL FROM GOCARDLESS

It appears that members who signed up before 2016 are being asked to approve their payment by GoCardless ([email protected]). Please click "Review this payment" to follow the link, then click "approve payment" if you have received this email. If you do not do this, we will be unable to withdraw your subscription fee from your bank. Your membership would then expire and you will cease to be a SMiSA member since payment cannot be taken.

Once you approve this month's payment, any future subscription fees will be taken as normal without this approval.

We have been made aware of an email which has been issued from GoCardless to many of our members, stating that their subscription has been cancelled.

VeryConnect, who run our membership platform, are currently undertaking a syncing exercise behind the scenes to simplify how our subscriptions are managed. They have now just made us aware that this email from GoCardless may be sent to some members as part of their exercise.

Please be assured that no membership subscriptions have been cancelled, and you can disregard the email from GoCardless.

We would like to apologise for the confusion the cancellation email would have caused.

Best Regards,

The SMiSA Board

We are pleased to confirm that David Mackenzie has been co-opted onto the SMiSA Board. Following our call last month inviting interested members to declare their interest, we conducted several informal interviews with candidates. Through this process, we found David to be a strong candidate with qualities and insights that we believe will bring added value to the board.

We would like to clarify that this co-option to the SMiSA Board is entirely separate from the current recruitment process for the appointment of a new Director to the Board of St. Mirren Football Club. The application window for this appointment will close at 6pm Friday 15th November. Anyone interested in this position can request an application pack by emailing [email protected]. 

As per the SMiSA constitution, David will be required to stand for election at the 2025 SMiSA Annual General Meeting next May should he wish to secure a full board position. 

David said about his new role: "As a lifelong fan and longtime SMiSA member I’m delighted to be given this opportunity to take up the co-opted role on the board. I’m looking forward to doing my bit to continue the driving forward of the fan ownership model and in doing so making our club stronger.".

David will join the SMiSA Board for his first meeting on Monday evening. We look forward to working with David in the coming months as we continue to advance the goals of SMiSA and provide added value to our members.

As you may be aware, SMiSA need to appoint a new director to represent the society on the board of St Mirren Football Club as Alex White has confirmed he will step down at the December SMFC AGM, meaning a position to be one of our four SMiSA nominated directors on the club board has become available. Alex has made a significant contribution during his three years as a Director, and SMiSA would once again like to thank him for all he has done during his tenure for both SMiSA and St Mirren Football Club.

We are now calling for anyone interested in becoming a candidate for this position to apply.  You can do this by emailing [email protected] to declare your interest. Applicants who declare interest will receive an application pack containing informative documents about the process and role. They will also receive an application form. The closing date for applications to be submitted is Friday 15th November at 5pm.

New SMiSA appointments to the club board are subject to the formal recruitment process SMiSA has put in place. This will see the SMiSA board shortlist and interview those who best fit the job description, and select a preferred candidate who the members will then be asked to approve. It is preferred that candidates are already SMiSA members, however all applications will be considered. Interview dates and timings will be further discussed with candidates who are successful in the sifting process relating to their application and progress to the interview stage.

The successful candidate will be expected to act as the link between the club and SMiSA boards, ensure member views are considered in club decisions and have the skills and experience to make a positive contribution to the running of the football club.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with: [email protected].

Regards,

The SMiSA Board