All votes are now in for the October £2 spend ballot, and we can reveal the results as follows:
Option 1 – new goals for the St Mirren youth academy – 334 votes (40%)
Option 3 – SMFC Community Trust (Xmas meal and Fit Fans) – 310 votes (37%)
Option 4 – none of the above – 100 votes (12%)
Option 2 – stadium hand-driers – 88 votes (11%)
Members were voting on where to spend the £3,000 available in this quarter and a reminder of the initial options is here.
That means the £3,000 will go to the youth academy for a new set of moveable 11-a-side goals.
However, while the SMFC community trust projects narrowly missed out in the vote, we would like to give SMISA members the option to still make a £500 donation towards the Christmas meal element.
This planned event will offer a festive feed at the stadium on December 25 to up to 120 elderly people from the local community who may be suffering from isolation and might not otherwise have anywhere to go.
Having a ‘follow-up’ vote is not something we have done before and we do not plan to make a habit of in future, but we considered the following as reasons to make an exception here:
- this was the closest-run £2 spend we’ve had and the most votes ever received by a project which didn’t win;
- feedback from members suggested the festive meal was the most popular of the two community trust projects, and the one the organisers were most keen for help with;
- we have over the past two years accumulated a small sum of unspent money from previous £2 ballots and has never been assigned to any project. If approved, the £500 will come from that;
- the next scheduled spend isn’t until January, so it can’t be an option in a future vote.
In order to have a simple yes/no vote and a clear outcome, we need to define a sum for you to vote on. In this instance, we chose against asking you to fully fund an option which didn’t win.
But while £500 leaves the SMFC community trust with some fundraising still to do, we felt it would be an appropriate level of support for a worthy cause. Members have been emailed with a link allowing them to vote.