Since our successful Buy The Buds campaign in 2016, SMISA has helped deliver numerous club and community projects as we continue along the path to fan-owned ownership of St Mirren.

As we enter what is shaping up to be a seismic decade for both SMISA and the club, here is a list of some of things we have been involved with over the past three-and-a-half years:

1. Supporter representation on the board

Since 2016 our members have been represented at the heart of the club via the introduction of a SMISA director. David Nicol was the first to take his seat on the board and he has since been succeeded by David Riley. Their presence ensures our members’ needs are always listened to.

2. Wheelchair viewing platform

The creation of a scheme where members get to vote every quarter on how to spend the additional £2 of their monthly fees was the first of its kind. Since then, our members have given their backing to some very worthwhile concepts. One of the earliest was the decision to part-fund a wheelchair platform in the main stand of the stadium, given St Mirren some of the best disabled facilities in the country.

3. Community season tickets

SMISA recognises the importance of building a bond with the local community, whether St Mirren supporters or not. Over the past few years we have bought a block of season tickets and then made them available to local groups to use free of charge, allowing hundreds of people to attend a match when they might not otherwise have been able to. As SMISA grows we want to continue to develop that relationship with the community.

4. Part-funded a new astrograss pitch at Ralston

Recognising the importance of helping the first-team as well as honouring our long-term commitment to supporting the youth academy, SMISA members agreed to make a £50,000 payment to help the club fund the installation of a new astrograss pitch at the training ground. In return, SMISA became title sponsors at Ralston and our members had the chance to take a tour of the facility and play in a friendly match to officially open the new pitch. SMISA also paid for the purchase of portable goals used on the pitch.

5. Stadium murals and pre-match entertainment

As well as supporting club and community projects, the £2 Spend has also been used to enhance the matchday experience for supporters. SMISA put forward the idea of having a local artist paint murals of some of the major trophy wins in the club’s history and members gave it their backing. Fans heading to a match can now see six of these paintings brightening up the walls of the stadium concourse. And SMISA members have also continued to support the pre-match entertainment ran by Paisley Panda, the Fans Council and the SLOs on matchdays for young fans.

6. Helping the relegation fight

Recognising the plight facing the team back in January 2017, SMISA members voted to boost the first-team playing budget to allow then manager Jack Ross to enhance his squad in the transfer market. What unfolded after that was an incredible 16 months that saw the team survive on the final day of the season and then win the Championship the following year. SMISA helped send them on their way!

7. Meet the Manager Q&As

The club has gone through more managers than they would have liked in recent years! But each time there was an appointment, SMISA helped arrange a night that allowed all supporters the chance to meet the new manager and put their questions to them. We are grateful to all of our recent managers and their assistants for agreeing to do this.

8.Meeting our financial commitments ourselves

As part of the deal to help Gordon Scott buy the club in 2016, SMISA agreed to pay its £380,000 share of the cost to the selling consortium within two years. Due to higher-than-expected member numbers we were able to meet that commitment without the need to take on any external borrowing. We continue to pride ourselves in our financial prudency, thanks mainly to our members’ ongoing support.

9.Backing the St Mirren women’s team and youth academy

SMISA played a big part in helping get the women’s team off the ground and then chose to sponsor their strips to also support them financially. We are keen backers of the women’s team and hope to see it flourish in the years ahead. Members also voted to fund the youth academy’s recent trips to play against English opposition, and contributed towards the cost of employing an additional sports scientist.

10. Volunteer squad

Many of our members do a lot of good work that often goes unnoticed or receives little credit. One of these is the volunteer squad who meet regularly to help clean the stadium and run repairs at the training ground. This we believe encapsulates the spirit of a community club, where everyone is willing to pitch in to contribute towards a brighter future.

We emailed members earlier today with the results from the latest £2 Spend ballot. The two projects proposed - Pre-match family entertainment and Festive Friends - were both voted through by an overwhelming majority. Details below. 

Our next quarterly ballot will take place in January and any members wishing to forward projects for consideration can do so by email at [email protected]

Last month there was £2700 in the pot for the quarter and we asked you to consider the merits of two projects. Thanks to the 851 members who took the time to vote.

The first project that we proposed was for a continuation of the pre-match family entertainment that takes place outside the stadium on a matchday.

This has proved to be a very popular venture run by Colin Bright, AKA Paisley Panda, and jointly backed by SMISA, the club’s Supporters Liaison Officers (SLOs) and the Fans Council.

The entertainment has grown year on year since it first started with Bung a Baw back in 2016. The aim from the outset has been to encourage the kids of today to attend matches regularly and in turn become the paying adult fan of tomorrow. Feedback has been incredibly positive both from home and away fans.

The organisers want to continue to grow the project and requested £1500 to do so.

Members voted in huge favour of this project: 88% (747 members) gave your support, something that will make a huge difference to Colin and everyone else involved in organising it.  

The second project voted on involved the St Mirren Charitable Foundation and their Festive Friends Christmas dinner.

On Christmas Day last year the Foundation, in conjunction with the SPFL Trust and the Salvation Army, opened the stadium to provide a meal, company and entertainment for a number of local elderly people.

Members from SMISA and the St Mirren women’s football team also pitched in to help make it a day to remember for all involved.

Gayle Brannigan from the Foundation is hosting Festive Friends again this year and asked if SMISA members could contribute £1200 towards the costs involved. 

Again this was supported in massive numbers: 91% (771 members) voted to support the plan to give a Christmas meal to those most in need.

We recently wrote to our members with details of the latest £2 Spend options. Details are listed below. Members have until October 30 at 8pm to register their vote.

Members should also know we intend to use Very Connect for the next £2 Spend ballot in January next year. To be able to vote you will need to be registered on the system.

There is £2700 in the pot for this quarter. There are two projects up for consideration this month and members are being asked to vote yes or no to each one, meaning we could end up with both, one or neither.

Option 1 is for a continuation of the pre-match family entertainment that takes place outside the stadium on a matchday.

This has proved to be a very popular venture run by Colin Bright, AKA Paisley Panda, and jointly backed by SMISA, the club’s Supporters Liaison Officers (SLOs) and the Fans Council.

The entertainment has grown year on year since it first started with Bung a Baw back in 2016. Last season they took things to a new level providing entertainment at all Saturday home games with activities including inflatables, live music, face painting, balloon artist, flag displays and much more.

The aim from the outset has been to encourage the kids of today to attend matches regularly and in turn become the paying adult fan of tomorrow. Feedback has been incredibly positive both from home and away fans.

The organisers want to continue to grow and add to the activities they provide throughout the season but need funding to do so. The total cost for this request is £1500.

Option 2 involves the St Mirren Charitable Foundation and their Festive Friends Christmas dinner.

On Christmas Day last year the Foundation, in conjunction with the SPFL Trust and the Salvation Army, opened the stadium to provide a meal, company and entertainment for a number of local elderly people.

Members from SMISA and the St Mirren women’s football team also pitched in to help make it a day to remember for all involved.

Gayle Brannigan from the Foundation wants to host Festive Friends again this year and has asked if SMISA members could contribute £1200 towards the costs involved.

Should one or both projects not receive majority backing the sums will remain in the pot for possible use at a future date.

We are in the process of switching to a new database management system called Very Connect. Members will receive an email explaining the pertinent points but here we bring you fuller information on why we need a new system, and what it means for you.

The current set up and why it needs to be upgraded

Until now we have been operating with a number of different systems, none of which are interlinked.

1. Excel spreadsheets for the core membership data
2. Mailchimp for sending the regular update and ballot emails,
3. Election Runner for the director elections and £2 Spend ballots
4. Eventbrite for registrations for things like Manager Q&A nights
5. and of course Gocardless where members initially set up their direct debits

Each of these apart from Eventbrite have separate member email address lists which need to be individually updated for all changes to member data and status, and then reconciled frequently to ensure consistency.

All this background administration is a considerable workload for the SMISA committee. Removing the need for much of this work would free up committee time to help move SMiSA forward in other ways.

Although we take regular backups of files, the data could still be vulnerable to things like hardware failure or file corruption on individual computers or other devices.

Also in these days of strict data privacy and GDPR regulations a stand-alone spreadsheet based system does not deliver the required standard of security for member data.

The use of Excel, Mailchimp and Eventbrite are free to SMISA at present, although that may not always be the case in future. Eventbrite incurs costs of c £100 per ballot.

What will replace the current set up?

A list of core requirements for any new system was drawn up, and considerable research and trials undertaken of available off-the-shelf solutions. We eventually decided to go with a Glasgow-based platform called VeryConnect, which provides a membership database platform which can be customised and comes with built-in integration to Mailchimp and Gocardless.

The system will deliver the following benefits for member administration:

• one central database of member data
• built-in email and balloting functions
• no need to maintain separate mailing lists in Election Runner and Mailchimp
• Internet cloud based so can be accessed by all authorised committee members without the need to copy or download and distribute information for specific purposes.
• Secure service provider platform with frequent backups.
• Fully compliant with GDPR laws
• The link with GoCardless ensures member data is captured as part of the joining up process.

The new portal also allows members to register and log in, enabling them to check and update their own personal and contact details, avoiding the need to contact SMiSA by email to request changes.

There are many other standard features which could be made available in future, including blogs, interest groups event calendar and the chance to read SMISA documents stored in the system.  These will be introduced gradually as and when appropriate.

All of this will let us provide a much improved service to members.

Costs  

But as you’d expect, professional systems like this don’t come for free. There is a one-off set-up cost (£4,200), and like most software services these days, an ongoing monthly subscription (£300).

If we use the inbuilt polling function in place of Election Runner this will save about £400 per annum.

We believe the net cost represents good value for the degree of functionality and customisation Very Connect will offer us, compared to many of the other possible solutions we looked into, many of which cost a lot more but with limited customisation options.

Whilst we always strive not to spend funds on operating costs if we can avoid it, we can’t go on forever as an organisation with a six-figure annual income and more than a thousand members if that operation is being run from an Excel spreadsheet on someone’s personal PC.

Also, if we’re not able to streamline the workload involved here, we may have needed to employ a part-time administrator to look after this for us, which other trusts (such as The Well Society and Foundation of Hearts) already do. This system will set us up for the foreseeable future as regards membership records and all that they involve.

Next Steps

All of our membership data has now been uploaded from the spreadsheets into the new system and we are currently working with Very Connect on the final set-up of the live system and running our final checks and reconciliations of the data.

Not all functionality will be activated on initial roll out of the portal, as we want to ensure that the core membership functions are in good order first.

Members will soon be invited to log in and register. We will require everyone to do this to check their address and contact details, and update them if required. You will also be able to set your preferences for contacts from SMiSA and to add optional information to your Profile page.

New St Mirren management duo Jim Goodwin and Lee Sharp will discuss their plans with supporters at a special SMISA-run Meet the Manager night next week.

The Q&A event will take place on Thursday 15 August in the hospitality suite at the Simple Digital Arena and will also see Jim and Lee welcomed into SMISA as honorary members as we continue on the road towards majority fan ownership.

Jim is looking forward to what he hopes will be a regular meeting with the supporters and thanked SMISA for inducting him and his assistant as well as for their ongoing work.

He said: “It’s a fantastic honour for both Lee and me to be inducted as honorary members. What SMISA have done for the club is quite incredible and it’s a great organisation. They’re a group of people who are extremely passionate about the club and desperate for success. And hopefully Lee and I can deliver that for all them and all our supporters.

“I’m looking forward to speaking with the fans on the night. I’ve done similar things before as club captain and I’d love to have regular meetings with the supporters as I think it’s really important.

“That level of interaction always has to be there at any club. There can’t be any division between the club, from board level, through the manager, the staff, the players, the youth academy and the fans as well. We’re all in it together. So I look forward to meeting the supporters and answering their questions on the night.”

The event is free and open to all St Mirren fans but due to the capacity of the venue, places must be booked in advance via Eventbrite link below and will be first-come, first-served. One ticket per application.

Please note that due to the terms of the club's licence, the event is for over-18s only. Doors will open on the night from 6.30pm, and the event will start at 7pm.

You can book your place HERE

SMISA members have voted in favour of two projects that will help both the St Mirren Women's team and the St Mirren Youth Academy in the latest £2 spend ballot.

Membes were asked to chose whether they wished to spend £1000 to buy a set of away strips and BALA Sport Fairtrade Footballs for Kate Cooper's squad, and whether to provide Head of Youth Allan McManus with £3000 to pay for taking Academy squads down to England to take on Premier League and Championship opposition.

Both proposals got the overwhelming support of the members. Around 73% (620 members) backed the suggestion to give the women's team financial support and 89% (749 members) opted to provide the youth academy with much-needed funds.

Both are pivotal parts of our club and hopefuly this money will help them continue to grow.

Our next quarterly ballot will take place in October and any members wishing to forward projects for consideration can do so by email at [email protected]

DAVID RILEY was elected on to the St Mirren club board by SMISA members towards the end of last year. Here he provides his first update to members on what that experience has been like so far.  

Q: How have you found your first seven months 

on the club board?

A: The first seven months have been surreal but extremely enjoyable. I still can't quite believe that I've been given the opportunity to shape the future of our club. It's not something anyone ever imagines they will have the chance to do. I've been on a very steep learning curve since December but I've had tremendous help and support from everyone at the club as I've gone around finding out how the business functions on a daily basis.

Q: What has been the one thing you’ve learned

 in that time that perhaps surprised you?

A: How few people there are involved in the running of our club. I always assumed there were loads of people, each with their own area of responsibility. The company I work for has almost half a million employees so I'm used to thinking that way but we have a small team of people who do an excellent job every day, sometimes under circumstances that are not easy. My goal during the next 18 months or so is to look at how we do things and try to find ways to improve on them to make life a little easier for everyone; both staff and customers.

Q: What particular projects have you been 

involved in or helped with?

A: There have been a few but the main priority for me was our ticketing system. I know many fans on different devices have had issues of one kind or another over the years and although they're not always avoidable there is certainly a lot of room for improvement. The problem is not always a system issue as such but if I'm not able to buy a ticket or renew my season ticket when I want to do it then that's a problem. I'm working directly with Interstadia and our ticket office staff to address this.

Another thing that wasn’t really a project but an unexpected task was being involved in the recruitment of our new manager. It wasn’t something I expected during my two years on the board but it was great experience as we move towards fan ownership.

Q: What’s been the most enjoyable aspect of 

being a director so far?

A: I can't single out any aspect of the job, I've honestly enjoyed every minute...maybe with the exception of my dear old mum phoning me to tell me my photo was in the Paisley Daily Express and that I really need to go on a diet because they couldn't fit me on one page!

Q: As SMISA’s elected representative how important is it 

to ensure the supporters are taken into consideration where possible?

A: It's my top priority. I'm a supporter first and foremost, as is everyone on the board. I'm focussing on improving the supporter experience in all dealings with the club. Without supporters we wouldn't have a club so we should never stop looking for ways to improve the relationship between the club and those who spend a lot of money supporting us.

Changes won't happen overnight and we won't get everything right first time but I am committed to making improvements in as many areas as possible during my time on the board.

There are, of course, times when what's unpopular with the supporters conflicts with what's best for the club, in a business sense; giving over the South Stand to opposing supporters being a good example of that.

That decision allowed us to bring in two players in January without whom, there is no doubt, we would be preparing for life in the Championship this season. The supporters’ opinions are not being ignored in making decisions such as this but we, on the board, have a duty to act in the best interests of the club and maintaining our place in the Premiership is where our club needs to be and deserves to be.

Q: What are the key attributes a director should 

possess to be able to make a positive contribution

to the running of the club?

A: Social skills are, in my opinion, as important as any business skills you can bring to the role. On match days you host and have conversations with the opposition team's board alongside some well-respected figures from the game so good communication skills are required.

In board dealings, the ability to see both sides of an argument and take a measured approach when making decisions are critical along with good time management skills, genuine desire to get involved and a willingness to go outside your comfort zone. It's not always easy but it's always worthwhile.

Q: What do you think could be done to make the

 club run more efficiently?

A: Generally speaking, in any business you will find that things are done in a certain way because "that's how they've always been done". There is the wise old saying; if it ain't broke don't fix it. That's true to a point but you first have to make sure that it really ain't broke, even a little. In my day job I'm paid to optimise processes and improve efficiency across multiple departments. A big part of my job is asking questions, suggesting alternatives and trying them out.

 It sounds simple and it is. That's what I have started and will continue to do at the club. It helps me get an understanding of the individual jobs and how the departments interact with each other and our customers but it also allows me to look at how everything gets done, without any preconceived ideas and potentially see opportunities to make improvements.

Should any member wish to discuss a club-related issue with David, he can be contacted on [email protected]