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].