We are now approaching six months since the #BuyTheBuds campaign completed in the summer (how time flies!), which means the second instalment of our quarterly £2 members discretionary pot spend is now due.
As you know, for every individual #BuyTheBuds monthly membership fee, £2 goes into a pot to be spent on club-related projects each quarter, with the rest set aside for the eventual purchase of the majority shareholding in the club from Gordon Scott.
The first batch of money went towards the building of the new wheelchair platform in the main stand – which means St Mirren’s disabled facilities are now among the best in Scotland.
We are delighted our members were able to help make this very worthwhile project happen and look forward to more similar projects which will make a difference to the club and community in the future.
January spend
We anticipate the total amount due to go into the £2 pot from the Oct to Dec memberships will be around £8,000.
The pot also currently contains £1,252.88 left over from the July to Sept memberships (as the final bill for our contribution to the disabled platform came out around £7,200).
Having taken the views of the St Mirren board on where the club would like extra investment, we are proposing the contents of the £2 pot be added to the club’s playing budget for the January transfer window, to be spent as the manager sees fit.
We are asking members to vote on whether they are happy to endorse this proposal, and if so, how much they want to make available. In doing so, we considered the following -
- clearly the club’s league position remains perilous. Only a sustained improvement in results will stop St Mirren slipping into the third tier and the lowest point in its history, the financial impact of which would be disastrous;
- the sums involved would make a clear difference – they could potentially fund all or at least most of a player’s wage between January and the end of the season;
- we surveyed our members in September over your spending priorities, the results of which can be seen here. At that time, 44% of you ranked the first-team playing budget as an important or very important use of the money, while 30% of you said it wasn’t a suitable use.
There are other types of project we want to and will put before you in future – but we feel if there was ever a time to prioritise investment in the playing budget, it is now.
We appreciate opinions will vary, but members have the option to reject these proposals. Should a majority of members vote not to spend the money, it will stay in the pot for potential future use.
There will be two questions, both of which will run on a yes or no basis. The first will ask whether members are happy to spend the £8,000 from the last three months worth of £2s in this way.
The second question only applies if a majority of members say yes to question 1, and that is whether you wish to top the total up with the additional £1,252.88 brought forward from the last quarter.
You can vote now via secure online ballot in the email which will follow this one. Please junk check your junk mail for this email. Voting will run until midnight Sunday 18 December.
Undersoil heating
As the club recently confirmed in a detailed statement to fans at the start of December, the undersoil heating at the Paisley 2021 Stadium is not working and needs repaired.
You can read the club’s full statement here.
The club has since approached SMISA to ask if we would be willing to make available to them an interest-free loan of £15,000, to cover the cost of the repairs should they decide to make them.
The club’s annual budget does not make provision for this, meaning external funding is needed if the repairs are to happen.
We were asked to make a quick decision as the club may need to make the repairs quickly – should the game against Morton at Hogmanay be postponed, it would likely lead to a substantial loss of much-needed revenue.
Having debated the issue, the SMISA committee decided to agree to the club’s request.Tthe club and smisa will work together to agree a suitable repayment schedule.
Our reason is we felt it was better to put this money to use for the good of the club, when it would be sitting in the bank otherwise.
We would reassure members we have cash reserves which can comfortably cover the sum in question, and as the money will be paid back in full, our long-term financial planning is not affected.
While we accept it may have been preferable to give the members the chance to vote on this, we hope you would appreciate the timescales and time of year of the request made that very difficult.
We are also aware it has been suggested the undersoil heating repairs could have been put to members as an option in the £2 pot vote, but – notwithstanding the timescales – there isn’t enough money in that pot to do so, plus this makes it possible for the repairs and investment in the playing squad to both happen.
The Saint newspaper
SMISA has teamed up with Saints fan Jack Paterson (the man behind the Black and White Magazine) to produce a trial edition of The Saint free newspaper, which many of you will remember from years gone by.
The 12-page edition – being printed this week – covers some of the things SMISA has been up to during the #BuyTheBuds campaign, as well as a load of other articles about the club, and will be targeted at Saints fans and the wider Paisley community.
Some of our committee will be distributing copies to fans around the stadium immediately after the Ayr game on Saturday and we would appreciate the help of members who were willing to help us hand them out.
We are also hoping some of our members would be willing to take away a pile of papers and would leave them in their local shop, pub or library.
The aim of this is to help promote the club (and SMISA) throughout the local community by reaching some of the people who may not be online.
To register an interest or for more info, just drop a line to SMISA’s John White at [email protected]
St Mirren AGM
You may be aware the club is holding its Annual General Meeting next Monday (19 December) at the Paisley 2021 Stadium at 7pm.
SMISA will be represented by our chairman George Adam, who will be there to vote in respect of the trust’s 29% shareholding in St Mirren FC.
The AGM usually sees shareholders asked to vote to appoint or reappoint the board of directors, and to accept the annual accounts.
We plan to cast our vote in favour of each of the five current directors (Gordon Scott, Tony Fitzpatrick, David Nicol, Chris Stewart and Alan Wardrop) being reappointed.
The board has only recently been assembled and we hope members would agree they should have the chance to continue the work they have started over the next year.
We also intend to vote to accept the club accounts, however we want to give our members the chance to read them for themselves, which you can do through this link.
Should you have any comments or questions relating to the accounts which you want us to raise with the club on your behalf, please email them to [email protected] and we will do so.
The AGM is only open to shareholders of St Mirren FC – meaning any members who have their own personal shareholding can of course attend in a personal capacity.
However if any personal shareholder is unable to be there they could make it possible for another SMISA member to do so in their place.
Just send a signed version of the form already emailed to you by the club to us and we will add the name of a member who does wish to attend.
Any members who are not personal shareholders who would like to come to the AGM should let us know by replying to this email – if there is a place available, we will be in touch to let you as soon as we are able to.
The SMISA Committee