We recently asked members to vote on where they would like to spend the £2 portion of your membership fees for the last quarter. We put five projects on the ballot and the results were as follows:
1. Equipment for St Mirren Youth Academy (£3,000)
YES: 724 (86%) / NO: 115 (14%)
2. quipment for St Mirren in the Community (£1,325)
YES: 652 (78%) / NO: 187 (22%)
3. Funding to subsidise youth coaching sessions run by Glenvale FC (£1,820)
YES: 444 (53%) / NO: 395 (47%)
4. Donation towards running costs of St Mirren FC amputee football team (£1,000)
YES: 656 (78%) / NO 183 (22%)
5. Matchday-quality footballs for St Mirren first team (£855)
YES: 613 (73%) / NO: 226 (27%)
All projects were approved by members and we thank the 839 of you who took the time to vote.
Some members will have noticed that the Glenvale BC project stimulated a bit of debate, with concerns raised this could be seen as in competition with the club's own community programme.
To explain how this came about, SMISA were approached by Glenvale weeks ago with a good presentation on their plans to provide coaching for youngsters who may not otherwise have been able to afford it.
As a community benefit society, SMISA felt this was in keeping with our purpose and agreed to put the project to members as part of the ballot. The club's concerns were put to us and taken on board, however it was decided we should let our members choose if they wanted to support the project or not.
We have talked it through with Gordon Scott and the club, and all parties have agreed to work together to minimise any impact on the club's community sessions. Part of Glenvale's proposal is to host sessions in the Airdome, meaning there will be rental income for the club.
SMISA is very supportive of the excellent work done by the club's own community team, who we are pleased our members also this month agreed to support through the purchase of new equipment.
SMISA remains proud of the investments our members have made and are making in support of the good work the board are doing to take St Mirren forward, and we will continue to work in partnership around all future £2 spends.
As always, if there are any questions for the committee, we can be reached on [email protected]
The SMISA committee