If you have managed to get on the golf course or been walking the dog at the park you can’t fail to have noticed daffodils coming up and that can only mean one thing, the Top 6 split is coming!
As I write we have a great chance of making the Top 6 for the first time. It’s in our own hands and under the leadership of Stephen Robinson I’m confident we will do it.
If you attended Meet the Manager night last week then it would be hard not to have been impressed by the way the Manager spoke of his players and the support he receives around the club. His energy, passion and enthusiasm is contagious, something confirmed by Mark O'Hara who was also in attendance on the night.
The event was a great success organised by Dougie McMahon, ably assisted by Stuart Chawk and Jack McSkeane - more on them later.
Meet the Manager is one of a range of benefits your SMiSA membership brings & we are going to review these. On the night SMiSA members Allan Douglas and Alex Stafford won a signed St Mirren shirt and ball respectively, we hope you enjoyed your free prizes.
We intend to run more of these "member" events and welcome any suggestions you may have.
March also brought a long overdue meeting between the SMFC SMiSA Directors and the SMiSA Board. All agreed it was a very productive night and it is essential that both boards co-operate at every opportunity for the benefit of the club.
It will always be the case that whilst the fans "own" the club we understand the Directors of SMFC "run" the club. Where we will work best is in partnership with each other and always in the best interests of our club.
The first Finance committee meeting took place at end of last week, the first in many months involving SMiSA Directors.
Whilst I can’t share specific numbers the SMiSA board have taken great confidence from the work undertaken by Keith Lasley and the Board to reduce costs thus ensuring as much money is re-invested in the daily operations of the club and playing staff.
I`d like to thank Alan Quinn for the huge amount of work he has been doing behind the scenes on the club accounting system. Many will know Alan served on the SMiSA board and I`d like to acknowledge the many hours Alan has volunteered to get the accounting systems modernised.
Volunteering leads me nicely to the work Colin Bright does with Paisley Panda. It can’t be underestimated what Colin adds to the match day experience and this acknowledgement from the club is great to see. SMiSA director Kenny Lang has helped lead the Marching On volunteer group & they along with the Northbank group have transformed the concourse in the West stand. I look forward to reading about this over the coming months.
Our club wouldn`t function without those who tirelessly give their time in service of the club, Jim Crawford, Stewart McIntosh, the SLO team of John, John and Karen as well as Roddy MacMillan who looks after our match day mascots and finally Kate Cooper who puts in huge amounts of time managing the St Mirren Womens team. It's people like them that make our club a community club, we must never lose sight of that, thanks to all.
Finally in March we launched our members survey. For us as a board this is hugely important. The purpose of the survey is to get feedback on improving ways to communicate with you, our members for your benefit. We want feedback on what groups we should help with our monthly "pots" and how they should be allocated. Finally, we want to find out your ideas and opinions to help us move SMISA forward.
As a board, we want to increase our membership numbers in the next year, and we need your support to make that a reality. We will share some ideas at the AGM in May as to how we will make this happen together.
I would urge you to take 5 minutes to complete this, if nothing else you could be 1 of 3 SMiSA members to win a signed St Mirren shirt, again a benefit of being a SMISA member.
As you can see March has been a busy month.
Looking forward to April/May and the SMiSA elections/AGM.
As co-optees myself, Jack McSkeane and Stuart Chawk stand for election to the board along with any others who may be interested.
Stuart and Jack have made a huge impact during their short tenure on the board.
It reaffirms the decision made to co-opt them onto the board. Both guys have revamped the website, ran all the updates you have been seeing recently and overhauled communication platforms behind the scenes.
People like Jack and Stuart are the lifeblood of the football club and SMISA going forward and I'm delighted both intend to run for election.
As Chairman, diversity on the SMFC or SMISA boards is to be encouraged, however that may come to fruition.
I`d encourage anyone thinking on putting themselves forward to take that step!
Well, all that remains is for me to wish you and your families a Happy Easter and enjoy your break if you manage to get one.
Hopefully by the time I provide the update for April we can all be celebrating a Top 6 finish for Saints.
Enjoy the game
Alex
COYS