Member update includes the results of our two most recent votes and our statement on recent club boardroom issues.
Club director and entertainment vote update
In our November update we introduced Alex White, our preferred candidate for the vacancy to be one of the four SMISA representatives on the club board, and asked members to vote on whether to approve his appointment.
The results of that vote were as follows: YES: 410 (94%) / NO:19 (4%). There were 7 abstentions
This means Alex will join the club board and the man he is replacing – David Riley – will step aside. We again thank David for his excellent service to SMISA and St Mirren, and he leaves with our best wishes for the future. We are also pleased to welcome Alex into the fold.
In the same email we also asked you to vote on whether to use £3,000 from the ‘club pot’ to help fund pre-match entertainment for young fans before home games, run by Paisley Panda Colin Bright and the club’s two volunteer supporter liaison officers John White and John Allison.
The results of that vote were as follows: YES: 401 (92%) / NO: 28 (6%). There were 7 abstentions
We are sure members will join us in recognising Colin and the two Johns for the tireless work they do to help improve the matchday experience for their fellow fans, and hope our members with young family members will take advantage of the extra entertainment on offer.
Club boardoom update
Our members will no doubt be aware of the discussion surrounding historic tweets made by another of our representatives, club chair John Needham. A few people have asked our position on this issue and now the SFA proceedings against him have concluded regarding the one tweet which was issued whilst he was a Director of the Club, we will publicly share it.
We do not condone John’s tweets and they were an error of judgement on his part. It was right John apologise, which he has done, publicly and privately. However we have had the benefit of working with John over the past 18 months. We do not believe those tweets reflect the measured character we have got to know.
Since becoming club chair shortly after we became majority shareholders in the summer, John has been an effective and hands-on presence around the club. He had been working with staff to help improve club operations after some of the issues that arose over the summer, and had fronted two SMISA member meetings to take questions and report back.
We do not believe his tweet in May should outweigh the good work he has done and is doing. He remains an asset to SMISA and St Mirren and we believe it’s in the club’s best interest he continue. On that basis, he retains the full and unanimous support of the SMISA Board and our board reps.
At the same time, we are aware of recent online discussion around our relationship with Kibble. In any partnership, differences of opinion and approach can arise. The best place for any issues to be managed is in the boardroom and between the shareholders.
We would stress for us to play that out in public would not be in the best interests of St Mirren. On that basis we ask for understanding and realism from members over what SMISA can publicly say.
We will continue to regularly update members on SMISA business, and will push the club to make sure updates about club operations are communicated as openly and promptly as they can be.
What we can say is that the SMISA Board are a group of lifelong St Mirren fans who do what we do because we love the club, and who will act in its best interests at all times. The same is true of our four representatives on the club board (John, Gordon Scott, Alan Wardrop and now Alex White), and we have full faith in them to do that on your behalf.
Aberdeen away game
We were saddened to hear of the issues some of our fans experienced at Pittodrie on Saturday where problems with fan safety and stewarding were reported. We are assisting the club’s SLOs to gather any feedback to help the club investigate. If you were there and have an account to share, please email [email protected].
For anything else, we can as always be contacted via [email protected]