General SMiSA News

Q&A update with SMISA's directors on St Mirren board

OUR two SMISA-appointed St Mirren directors, David Riley (DR) and John Needham (JN), provide an update to members on what’s been happening at the club over the last few months and what lies ahead.

 

Q: It’s been three months since our last directors’ Q&A – can you update the members on the main things that have been keeping the St Mirren board busy during that period please?

 

DR: Sure. It has been great to see the team come together and climb the league, despite falling just short of claiming a place in the top six. We are all confident they will continue to push hard to finish in seventh spot and hopefully enjoy a run in the Scottish Cup, too.

 

Behind the scenes we have been working on the plans for getting fans safely back into the stadium. No one knows how that will happen or what it will look like but our fans can rest assured that we will do everything possible and meet every requirement to ensure as many as possible are able to attend matches next season.

 

If restrictions on numbers are still in place, we will be looking to ensure that live streaming continues to be available for those who can’t be accommodated. This isn’t guaranteed but we will ensure our voice is heard in any discussions.

 

As always, we are monitoring the budget and planning for season 2021/22 to provide the manager with the funds, facilities and resources he needs to ensure the team keeps improving.

 

As advised in a previous update, we are constantly looking to improve the matchday experience for our fans and to that end we are making very good progress. More on those next time.

 

Q: One of the major recent developments was, of course, the decision to hand manager Jim Goodwin an extended contract. Can you give a little background as to how that decision was reached and the reasons behind it?

 

DR: Jim is recognised throughout the game as one of the top young managers in the country. From the first interview it was clear that he has the desire and skill set to succeed and ambitions that matched those of the Board.

 

He has navigated his way through one of the most difficult seasons any manager will ever go through – just look at some of the managerial casualties – and only just missed out on a top six finish.

 

Jim is committed to taking the club as far as possible and it was only right that the Board made the same commitment to him by offering a contract extension which we are all very happy has been signed. We will support Jim every step of the way to help bring future success to the club.

 

Q: How has the relative certainty over knowing what division the club will likely be in next season helped with forward planning? Has the club been able to put plans in place for next season in terms of enhancing the playing squad?

 

JN: It certainly has been a help. However, the club had embarked on a strategy last summer to sign players on longer-term deals to reduce the churn of players every close season. As a result, around 15 of the squad are already signed up for next year and that solid platform will hopefully allow us to attract better quality players to strengthen the squad further.

 

Targets have already been identified and we all hope that Jim and Tony’s success in the transfer market will continue.

 

That said, the most important thing in terms of future planning is financial stability. The Board’s financial strategy at the club in recent years has meant we are well placed to continue improving the squad without over-stretching the finances.

 

Q: It now sadly looks like supporters won’t be able to attend matches at the SMISA Stadium this season. What’s the latest guidance in terms of getting fans back into grounds next season?

 

DR: Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of the pandemic like everyone else. As the First Minister and Chief Medical Officer have said, we will be guided by data, not dates, so we need to have plans in place to cover all possible scenarios and be ready to adapt to changes at very short notice…and we will.

 

The vaccination programme is progressing well so by summer I hope we will be well placed as a country to get back to something very close to normal.

 

Those of us on the Board have been fortunate to be able to attend matches this season but I can say with absolute certainty – and I know I speak for all of my fellow Directors – that football is nothing without fans. We truly can’t wait to get everyone back inside the stadium roaring the team on. That first day back will be hugely emotional for everyone; fans, players, management, staff and maybe even the polis!

 

Q: Have there been any new commercial developments taking place behind the scenes that members might be keen to learn about?

 

JN: The Directors are constantly looking at ways to improve the returns from our commercial activities, albeit this year efforts have been focused on ensuring losses from COVID were mitigated.

 

We do have plans for increasing the use of the stadium (once it’s safe to do so) and driving up income and hope to make announcements on these initiatives in the coming months.

 

Whilst COVID restrictions have had adverse impacts they have also forced us into developing things like SMTV to enable streaming games in greater numbers which has generated significant income.

 

We are also seeing the benefits of sharing skills and resources from Kibble in the likes of marketing where the “Be in that Number” campaign was a huge success. Also, the eye-catching billboard advertising that continues around the area.

 

Q: Supporters were excited to see 16 year-old Dylan Reid make his first-team debut recently. Are the board encouraged by the signs coming out of Ralston in terms of youth development?

 

JN: Our Academy is a real source of justifiable pride and the work done by Allan McManus and his team is greatly appreciated by the Board. It’s essential their good work continues and investment in the Academy is a central part of our strategy.

 

Dylan will hopefully become the latest in a long line of talented young players we’ve been able to enjoy seeing in the stripes.

 

This season we’ve also seen Kyle, Ethan and Cammy further establish themselves as regulars with Lewis and Jay knocking at the door too. It’s great to see these guys getting a chance to gain experience and improve.

 

An added bonus has been the successful recruitment of young talent from elsewhere such as Conor McCarthy and Jamie McGrath to augment our homegrown Academy graduates.

 

At St Mirren we’ve a great reputation for giving youth an opportunity to flourish and I’m sure that will continue.

February update including Meet the Manager and £2 Spend results

We recently emailed members with a February update:

 

Meet-the-manager Zoom event

 

The new year is only a few weeks old but it’s already thrown up plenty of St Mirren-related talking points. And we are delighted to be able to give our members the chance to talk about them with Jim Goodwin, from the comfort of your own home, with our latest virtual manager Q&A.

 

Jim will be joined on the call by club chief exec Tony Fitzpatrick and SMISA’s two reps on the club board – David Riley and John Needham – to help answer any questions on off-field matters.

 

The call will take place on Monday 15 February at 7pm. As our Zoom account limits capacity to 100 we’d ask anyone who wants to join the call to book your place by logging in to Very Connect and going to the Events page.

 

We’ll send joining instructions and a meeting link to all confirmed attendees on the day itself. Please don’t book a place unless you plan to use it (or if you do book and can’t use it, let us know)

 

January £2 ballot results

 

Last month we put forward two possible projects for members to vote on in the latest £2 Spend ballot.

 

One was to provide new training kit for the St Mirren Women and Girls Academy at a cost of £3600, a figure that will include incorporating SMISA branding.

 

Those members who voted chose to support this overwhelmingly, with 522 (87%) voting in favour and 76 (13%) voting against. That financial support will now help provide tracksuits and training kit for around 60 players in their under-13 to under-17 squads.

 

The second project was to help provide the club with new camera and microphone equipment to help improve the quality of St Mirren TV at a total cost of £3400. Again, this proved popular with those members who voted, with 520 (87%) in favour and 78 (13%) voting against.

 

The next ballot will take place in April and anyone with any suggestions for potential projects should email [email protected]

 

The SMISA committee

January update

We recently emailed our members with the latest SMISA update below: 

January £2 Spend 

 This month we have two potential projects to vote on with a total cost of £7000.

 The first is to provide new training kit for the St Mirren Women’s and Girls Academy. The academy has been severely impacted by the pandemic in terms of their finances and ability to play and train but has still managed to keep the players and volunteers engaged through a number of different activities. 

 They operate with the following age groups – Adults, U17, U15, U13, U11, and U9s - and currently have around 140 women and girls playing and representing St Mirren in the community.

 With their own fundraising efforts hampered by the pandemic, Kate Cooper and her team are looking for financial support to help provide tracksuits and training kit for around 60 players in their under-13 to under-17 squads, the performance arm of the academy. 

 The total cost of providing that kit would be £3600, which would include the cost of adding SMISA branding. 

 The second option is to support the development of St Mirren TV. With so many supporters tuning in every weekend to watch the team, we asked the club if there was anything our members could do to help deliver an enhanced product for them to watch. 

 They have come back to say that new equipment would allow them to provide better footage, less complex editing and free up the media team to develop additional content ideas for the platform. 

 To that end, the club would like to purchase a Canon Mark IV 5D camera (£2,500), two Go-Pro Hero 9 cameras (total £700) and a Canon stereo microphone DM-E100 (£200) at a total cost of £3400.

 Members can choose to support one, both or neither of these projects, with any unspent sums retained in the bank for possible future use. Voting closes February 5. 

Changes to SMISA website 

 With the transition to fan ownership set to be complete by the summer, we are keen to make sure our members are clear on how things will work once SMISA has bought the majority shareholding.

We've now created a new How It Will Work page on our website offering a handy summary of the respective roles of the club board, SMISA's committee and members, and our partners Kibble, as well as how club info will be communicated. 

 You can read that HERE.

 For anyone looking for more detail, the Q&A page we originally created last year when you were asked to vote on the Kibble partnership has now been rewritten and updated. You can see that HERE

 Prospective members can also still sign up online, while we also have a new page dedicated to the SMISA Stadium.

 Member contributions and donations pass the £1m mark

 Since the Buy The Buds campaign was launched in 2016, your contributions have helped SMISA to purchase our initial stake in the club from the former owners and, subsequently, to raise the amount needed to buy out chairman Gordon Scott – a deal we are on course to complete later this year. 

We calculate that you have raised more than £1m in subscriptions and donations in that four-and-a-half year period, an incredible effort. Without your regular financial support none of this would have been possible so we would like to thank every member who has helped us along the journey of ensuring our club stays in the hands of the people who care for it the most – the fans. 

 If you have any questions about this or anything else you can get in touch via [email protected].

 

SMISA members December update

We emailed our members with the following update - including the latest from our men on the club board, and a message to members from the club youth academy

Directors’ Update

SMISA’s two appointees to the St Mirren club board, David Riley and John Needham, are playing a key role in the running of the club while also acting as the link between SMISA and St Mirren’s board and management. In the first of what will be a series of regular updates for SMISA members, the pair explain in more detail what they have been involved in.

It covers how they ensure SMISA member views are considered in club decisions, the contribution our partners Kibble have made to the club to date, and how the club board are responding to what has been a turbulent year on and off the park. You can read that on our website here.

Choosing next season’s kit

We recently gave members the chance to choose next season’s home and away kits from a series of options created by the club’s strip manufacturer, Joma. We want to thank everyone who took the time to vote for their favourites – and debate it on social media too!

Voting has now closed and Joma and the club will unveil the two winning designs later in the season. We hope this will now become an annual event, with fans also hopefully getting the opportunity to submit their own designs for consideration.

Allan McManus thank you

Earlier in the year we asked members to consider supporting the St Mirren youth academy during a difficult period by pledging the funds from both the July and the October £2 spend ballots in one go.

Members voted in large numbers to back that proposal and a sum of almost £15,000 has since been paid to help with the running and upkeep of the Ralston facility.

Head of Youth Allan McManus has always been grateful to the SMISA members for their ongoing support of the academy and he recorded a video with the club’s head of media James Hunter where he explained how that money has been spent while also thanking SMISA for their ongoing backing. You can watch the video on the club’s You Tube channel here.

SMISA news

Two members of the SMISA board, Alan Quinn and Jim Cumming, have been appointed to the club’s newly-formed finance and audit sub-committees respectively. The appointments will allow Jim and Alan to ensure good governance is upheld at all times and will also give them greater insight into the workings of the club ahead of next summer’s transition to fan ownership.

And finally….

We’d like to thank all of you once again for your support throughout what has been a tough and challenging year for everyone.

We look forward to 2021 when we will complete the transition to fan ownership and supporters will - all being well - be back inside the SMISA Stadium before too long!
In the meantime, please get in touch with us at any time via [email protected].

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas – and Come On Ye Saints!

SMISA directors update - December 2020

In the first of what we plan to be a regular series, SMISA's two directors on the club board provide an update for members on a range of issues...


John - you are SMISA’s newest addition to the board. Can you tell the members a bit about your own background, and how you’ve found your first few months in the job?

JOHN: Sure, I retired from full time work in 2017 after almost 40 years working for RBS, starting in the former branch in the Piazza straight from school. During that time I was lucky enough to work in a variety of roles so I have a very broad set of skills and experience.

As well as working in the branches I was a relationship manager, worked on large projects, ran a large part of the back office across the UK, worked in audit and risk management and finally ended up working alongside the Bank of England following the financial crash in 2008 ensuring RBS was made safer and more secure for the future.

Since leaving the bank I’ve spent a lot more time on the golf course but I’ve also been building up a small set of voluntary and non-executive director positions. The chance to become a director of St Mirren fits perfectly with that and was an opportunity I felt I couldn’t let pass me by. I was never good enough to be a player so this is the next best thing!

It’s been a steep learning curve with the challenges facing us on and off the field from Covid. That said, I’m loving every minute of it. My primary role is to ensure the views of SMISA members are fully considered as part of the strategy and direction agreed for the club.

Allied to that I have tried to identify a couple of areas where I can work with those employed by the club to improve things. The topics of most interest to me are our digital/online offering and fan engagement. While great strides have been made by the club in recent years, I believe these are areas we could develop further.

David - you’ve been on the board for two years now. Can you tell us a bit about how the SMISA reps (which before John joined in the summer, were yourself and David Nicol) have been involved in club decisions, and how SMISA member views have been factored in?

DAVID:, I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to David Nicol for his excellent work in representing SMISA and its members prior to my arrival. He also provided support and guidance to me in my first few weeks and months which was very much appreciated.

From my very first board meeting I have been fully involved in all decisions taken. Where SMISA members have expressed views on a particular subject or issue they were presented to the board and considered in our decision. The other board members have always been interested in the thoughts and opinions of SMISA and its members and these form an integral part of the final decision.

It’s not always easy to balance the views of the majority with the best interests of the football club as a business. There have certainly been some decisions that needed to be taken with the head at the expense of the heart.

The impact of Covid-19 on the club this year has been significant and it is thanks to the incredible support of our fans that we have been able to continue to work towards improvements in areas identified from member feedback, either individually or via the recent SMISA member survey.

Ultimately we all want to see a successful team on the pitch, playing exciting football, and a top-class academy producing the next generation of first-team talent. Every decision we make is taking us a step closer to these goals. Some changes have already been implemented but there are more to come, delayed only by existing contractual obligations and/or Covid restrictions.

The club board recently chose to offer the naming rights to the stadium to SMISA. Can you tell us how that came about and why the board wanted to thank SMISA members in this way?

JOHN: The stadium-naming was a suggestion from Jim Gillespie (one of the two Kibble board reps). The previous commercial arrangement had come to an end and, being a big advocate of fan ownership, Jim thought it would be a good way to thank the fans who’ve made such a huge contribution towards the change in ownership, and the rest of the board agreed.

The timing also fits well with the countdown to the transfer of shares which Gordon Scott has agreed will take place, ahead of schedule, next summer.

The SMISA board were asked to come up with a name and chose The SMISA Stadium, which recognise the contribution of SMISA’s members but also to maximise the publicity for the transfer of ownership that is about to take place.

The club board were also pleased to give SMISA’s members the chance to choose next season’s strips, which is something David and myself had suggested, and there was a great reaction to the recent online vote.

While the winning designs will be kept under wraps until the summer, we look forward to seeing the team running out in a design chosen by the members – and the fact the strips will be the choice of the fans means it’ll hopefully be one they’ll want to wear too!

The club saw major changes early this year with the addition of Kibble to the club’s ownership structure. How have you found working with them? What difference have they made to St Mirren so far and what else can they add in future?

DAVID: The changes have been very smooth and Kibble have brought additional skills and resources aimed at making St Mirren more professional and maximising the commercial return from all aspects of the club’s operation – ultimately providing more investment for the playing squad.

It is unfortunate Covid took hold so quickly after our deal with Kibble was approved in February. If not for that, their impact would be far more visible but the support they have offered the club has made a significant impact behind the scenes in the meantime.

Existing staff at the club now have the support of Kibble’s expertise in admin, catering, IT, marketing, graphic design, PR and more. An example of the last three in practice is the Be in That Number campaign to help promote season tickets over the summer, which had a really strong presence online and on billboards around the town.

They have also helped deliver significant improvements to the building maintenance and infrastructure of the youth academy at Ralston, through staff time and resources. These were all the type of things Kibble promised at the SMISA members' meeting in January.

One individual who has made a big difference is David Jamieson, the club’s new general manager. David brings a wealth of experience, expertise and fresh ideas in a number of areas, as well as an extra pair of hands to support Tony Fitzpatrick to run the club as chief executive.

At board level, we are working closely with Kibble’s board reps – Jim Gillespie and Mark Macmillan – to ensure a strong long-term relationship is developed that will lead us into a successful and exciting fan-owned future for our club.

Finally, there’s been a few big, and unprecedented challenges for the club in recent months...not having fans in games has impacted on income, and there’s been some well-publicised issues with Covid. What can you tell SMISA members about the work going on behind the scenes to deal with all of that and get things right on and off the pitch?

JOHN: It’s been a frustrating season so far, for various reasons. Covid has brought many restrictions to the way we do things, with additional costs and reduced income.

To mitigate that, the board acted very quickly over the summer to ensure we understood the impact on budgets and made decisions aimed at ensuring we will be able to ride out the storm in good shape, even if we don’t have fans back during the season.

However a key factor in being able to manage the financial impact was the massive contribution made by our fans who bought season tickets in such great numbers. We are really indebted to every one of you.

There was some media coverage of late around potential issues raised in the club's annual audit which myself, David and the rest of the board are looking into. We can't say any more while that remains ongoing but we expect the club will be able to give fans an update on the resolution to those issues in the near future. Members can be reassured the club remains in a healthy financial position.

Clearly the fact there was a Covid outbreak at the club earlier this year was far from ideal. As a board we looked closely at how the club’s procedures could be improved to stop that happening again. The appointments of Brian Docherty and Kevin Pollock will help ensure the risk of any further outbreaks are minimised.

The club has now appealed the severity of the sanctions imposed by the SPFL. We are unable to comment on that any further at this stage – but the club will update fans on the outcome of that when they are able to.

In terms of the team, we are all fans on the board too so we feel the same ups and downs. Form had undoubtedly faltered for a spell in the autumn but the management team worked very hard to turn that around, and results and performances have been much better of late, culminating in this week's fantastic Betfred Cup win over Rangers. We are now feeling confident the team will be able to push on up the league and reach a position that matches the quality of squad we feel we now have.

November update - including chance to choose next season's strips

*We recently emailed our members with an update* 

Your chance to choose next season’s kit….

As you know, season 2021/22 will be the first in which St Mirren will be owned by its fans…and we are pleased to announce the team will be taking to the field in strips chosen by the fans too.

To help mark the transition to fan ownership, the club board have asked SMISA members to choose next season’s home and away strips from a series of options created by their kit partners Joma. We were delighted to accept that offer and thank our two club directors David Riley and John Needham for helping make it happen.

Joma have presented four options for each of the home and away strips – and you can run the rule over them elsewhere on the SMISA website here.

Then, once you’ve made a note of your favourites, you can vote for them through Very Connect. 

Voting will run until Sunday 6 December, and the home/away options with the most votes at that point will be the ones Joma will put into production. The club and Joma wish to keep the winning options under wraps to allow a reveal nearer the point the kits go on sale – so the outcome of the vote won’t be announced until then.

We hope SMISA members picking the strips will become an annual event. There may also be opportunities in future for fans to submit design ideas (which there wasn’t time for this year, due to production timelines).

The SMISA Stadium

As most of you will know by now, St Mirren Park has been renamed The SMISA Stadium for the remainder of the season. The release of this news quickly spread far and wide and details of the arrangement were reported on by a vast number of media organisations both in Scotland and beyond.

We are naturally very appreciative of this gesture which shows how much your contribution is valued by the club.

It also helped mark the start of the countdown to majority fan ownership, which we can now confirm is on track to happen slightly sooner than planned – in summer 2021.

The other benefit is the additional exposure it will bring SMISA between now and then. When Jeff Stelling announces to the nation on Sky Sports that “there’s been a goal at The SMISA Stadium” then we want football fans all across the country to be sufficiently interested to google the name and learn more about SMISA and fan ownership in general.

That can only help as we look to enhance our reputation heading into a pivotal year.

We hope that additional interest will lead to an increase in membership numbers as more St Mirren fans sign up as we get closer to completing our takeover, five years ahead of the initial date of 2026 set in 2016.

We would encourage as many fans as possible to sign up as the more members we have, the stronger we become.

Simply put, the more funds that are in the pot once the buy out of Gordon Scott’s shares has been concluded, the more money there will be to improve the team on the park. And that is something every St Mirren supporter wants to see.

SMISA Business 

We are pleased to report that, despite the financial uncertainty caused by the effects of the global pandemic, our member numbers have remained fairly robust, with 1165 still signed up. We remain grateful as always for your contribution.

The SMISA board continues to meet via Zoom every fortnight and speak regularly via other channels on a daily basis. We have recently welcomed two new contributors to the group, Colin Bright (otherwise known as Paisley Panda), who has been co-opted on to the board, and Kenny Lang who is currently involved on a more informal basis.

Colin has replaced Lawrence McCabe who has stepped down from the board. We thank Lawrence for everything he achieved during his time with us and look forward to hopefully working with him again in future on specific projects.

As we get ever closer to becoming majority owners of the club, SMISA also remains in regular dialogue with our partners, Kibble, and will also have representatives on the new joint working sub-committees that are being established by the club for some areas of the business. This will allow SMISA to gain more insight into how things work and to act as a conduit for passing information and views to and from the club board.

As you know we recently carried out a comprehensive survey of SMISA’s members which captured your views on a range of issues and we will use the very useful feedback we received to help us shape SMISA’s future role and operations, including in areas such as membership fees, events and benefits.

We will also be stepping up our communications to members between now and next summer – both in terms of widening awareness of how fan ownership will work and by bringing you more regular updates on SMISA business, such as this one.

St Mirren Park to be renamed The SMISA Stadium

St Mirren’s home is being renamed The SMISA Stadium in a show of recognition of the fans as we start the final countdown to becoming majority owners of the club in the summer.

To thank the members for your continued commitment, the club board has decided to gift the naming rights to the stadium to SMISA for the rest of season 2020/21.

The gesture is designed to mark what will be the last season before the club becomes majority fan owned – as we can also today confirm we are on track to complete the share purchase in the summer.

Our legal agreement with chairman Gordon Scott currently says this will happen by the end of 2021. But thanks the commitment of our members – past and present - we will have the share purchase money and a sizeable cash reserve sooner than hoped. And Gordon has confirmed he is happy to complete the share purchase on a date to be decided in the close-season.

The club board has agreed the stadium-naming gesture to thank SMISA’s 1,150-plus members – whose monthly membership fees have been saved towards the share purchase since 2016 – for making that possible.

And it will mean that tonight’s match against Dundee United will be the first to take place in the newly-christened SMISA Stadium.

SMISA chair George Adam MSP said: “Our aim has always been the same – to see St Mirren stay forever at the heart of the Paisley community and in the hands of those who will care for it most. What better way to mark the ownership of the club moving into the hands of the fans than to put their name above the door?

“When we started off on the journey towards fan ownership five years ago we never expected to be in this position so soon – but the incredible commitment of our members made this possible. We are thrilled the club board have chosen to recognise SMISA members in this way.”

Gordon Scott added: “I always wanted to know I was handing over the ownership of the club to the fans when the time was right, and with the set-up we now have in place we believe that time will be in the summer.

“I and the rest of the board are delighted to be able to recognise the commitment of SMISA’s members over the past five years for making all of this possible.

“Sadly our fans can’t be in the stadium at the moment but we hope having SMISA’s name on the ground for the rest of the season shows how much we value them as the lifeblood and future of the club.”

The #BuyTheBuds deal had initially been expected to take ten years to complete but will be delivered in just five thanks to SMISA and St Mirren’s partnership with leading social enterprise and social care charity Kibble.

That partnership was overwhelmingly approved by SMISA’s members during a vote in February and is believed to be unique in Europe by making a charity the part-owners of a top-flight football club.

Kibble provide support services and commercial expertise to the club, while working with the club to creating job and training opportunities for the young people in their care.

Their purchase of some of Gordon’s shares reduced the sum SMISA needed to raise and means SMISA now expect by the summer to have banked the share purchase money plus a substantial cash reserve, which will help offer financial security to the club in future.

Kibble chief executive and St Mirren director Jim Gillespie added: “With Kibble having been in Paisley for the best part of 200 years, our involvement with St Mirren helps bring together two of the town’s oldest institutions.  

“But with SMISA taking on the majority shareholding, St Mirren’s future will be a fan-owned one. Kibble are delighted to be supporting that and helping keep this club at heart of the community."

“SMISA’s members are the ones who made this happen and the stadium renaming is a great gesture to recognise them for their fantastic achievement.”

John Needham appointed as SMISA's new St Mirren director

We recently wrote to our members to inform them that, following a thorough recruitment process, we had identified John Needham as the best candidate to replace David Nicol as SMISA’s second-appointed director on the St Mirren club board.

Members were then given the chance to endorse or reject that proposal and an overwhelming majority of those who voted (95%) have agreed to support our choice of preferred candidate:

 YES (including three by postal vote): 434. NO: 24

 We are delighted, therefore, that John’s position on the board has been ratified by the members. As a committee we strongly believe John, alongside fellow director David Riley, will continue to ensure SMISA’s voice is represented on all club issues and will also make a notable contribution in helping to take St Mirren forward.

 John said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to have been selected to represent the SMISA members on the St Mirren Football Club Board.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that I regard this as an honour and, as a fan for the past 54 years, I never imagined that I’d be given such an exciting opportunity until now.

“Thanks for your support. I will do my utmost to ensure that your voice, as fans, is heard and that we continue to move forward as a club.”

John’s appointment means David Nicol will now, voluntarily, step down from the club board. Dave has served SMISA and the club as a director since 2016 and was an integral figure in the success of the Buy the Buds takeover campaign that sent St Mirren on their way to becoming a fan-owned club.

We would like to place on record our gratitude to Dave for everything he has done for us and the club over the past six years. He will continue to be a SMISA member and his experiences as both a SMISA and St Mirren board member are something we will no doubt call upon again in the future.