General SMiSA News

SMiSA Statement on Existing Share Purchase & Paisley Daily Express Advert

General SMiSA News
Today SMiSA has released a statement, and placed an advert in the Paisley Daily Express newspaper relating to the purchase of existing shares in St Mirren Football Club Ltd. Below are the details of both the advert, and the statement:
 
 
Advert:
 
S.M.I.S.A. – St. Mirren Supporters Trust – has funds available to acquire shares from existing shareholders in St. Mirren F.C. Ltd. Details of the Trust can be found on its website at www.smisa.net all enquires welcomed on line or email [email protected] or txt or call 0759 616 5194 and someone will contact you to discuss.
 
Alternatively if any shareholder wishes to retain their shares but would consider granting their proxy vote to the Supporters Trust please also use the above contact details.
 
 
Statement:
 
S.M.I.S.A. – St. Mirren Supporters Trust – is a non profit making concern incorporated on 26 June, 2003 as an industrial and provident Society registered under The Financial Services Authority.
 
The trust has fulfilled a number of roles in its 10 years of existence principally: -
  • Communicating with the club on fan issues. 
  • Fund raising for the football club. 
  • organisation of events bringing fans and players together.  
  • Building a shareholding in St. Mirren F.C. Ltd. funded by members subscriptions.
The trust has contributed well in excess of £100K to the club by way of purchase of shares, loans and donations over 12 years. These funds have been raised in the main from members monthly subscriptions. The membership comprises Saints Supporters who have chosen to do a bit extra for the club over and above their expenditure on attending matches and purchasing club merchandise. The most recent contribution was the sum of £50K to enable the construction of the air dome to proceed.
 
In the past, the trust has acquired shares directly from the football club but this avenue is no longer available and the trust members have voted to use their funds to buy shares from other shareholders.
 
Trust members are disappointed that their funds will not go for the benefit of the club as originally intended but they consider it vital at this time to look to maximise their shareholding in the club.
 
The current attempt by 5 shareholders to establish and sell a majority shareholding thereby creating a new single owner of the club will eliminate any influence on the affairs of our community football club by the remaining minority shareholders who own some 48% of the shares in the club but are not represented on the board. It is the aim of the trust to ensure that St. Mirren remains truly a community football club and avoids the fate which has befallen so many other clubs with single owners.
 
The trust is aware that there are several hundred shareholders in the club many of whom may have acquired the shares through inheritance for example and have no allegiance or indeed interest in St. Mirren. The trust is giving them the opportunity to dispose of these shares safe in the knowledge that they are passing into the hands of a long established properly constituted trust which is required to hold the shares in perpetuity and is prevented from disposing of them by its trust deed.
 
The trust currently holds 3877 shares in St. Mirren Football Club Ltd.

SMiSA Player of the Year Event - Saturday May 10th

General SMiSA News
The St Mirren Supporters Trust is hosting a Player of the Year event on behalf of a number of the other supporters clubs and this will be held at the University of the West of Scotland Students Union, Storie Street, Paisley on Saturday 10th May 2014 after the Hearts game.. Doors open at 3.00pm and tickets are available from the club shop at St Mirren Park and cost £2.00 each. Any unsold tickets will be available to purchase at the door.
 
The event is there for any club or individual to make an award and if you wish to do so please get in touch with us no later than Wednesday 07th May to be included in the presentations. 
 
There will be a raffle at the event and all proceeds will be returned to St.Mirren by way of programme advertising. All fans of all ages are welcome to come along. You can vote on the SMiSA award by emailing [email protected] tell us who you are voting for and why.

Foodbank Collection – St Mirren Park, 19th April 2014

General SMiSA News

A week on Saturday St Mirren fans will come together at St Mirren Park to back Saints in their opening post-split Premiership match-up with Hibernian which is sure to be quite a battle. But we are also wanting to help in another battle and that is in the growing fight against hunger within our communities.

Over the last few years the hardship that many of us face has grown as families are finding it harder to put food on the table but thankfully the growth of Foodbanks has been helping that battle and at St Mirren FC, as a community club, we want to play our part in that battle and we’re asking our fans to join us.

On Saturday 19th April between 2:00pm and 3:00pm, St Mirren Park will act as a collection point for food donations for the Renfrewshire Foodbank.

Members of the St Mirren Fan’s Council, ‘Street Stuff’ Volunteers and members of the St Mirren FC Community Trust will be looking to collect your donations for Renfrewshire’s Foodbank at St Mirren Park on Saturday 19th April between 2 and 3pm. If you can bring any of the following types of items (foodstuff that won’t spoil) the volunteers will be delighted to collect it!

 

• Milk (UHT or powdered)

• Sugar

• Fruit juice (carton)

• Soup

• Pasta sauces

• Sponge pudding (tinned)

• Tomatoes (tinned)

• Cereals

• Rice pudding (tinned)

• Tea Bags/instant coffee

• Instant mash potato

• Rice/pasta

• Tinned meat/fish

• Tinned fruit

• Jam

• Biscuits or snack bars

The volunteers will make themselves known to you and all Fan’s Council members will have ID badges approved by the club.

The collection points will be as follows:
  • South Stand – Middle between Turnstile 7-8 and 9-10
  • West Stand – Beside the West Stand Ticket office between Turnstiles 11-14 and 15-16
  • Main Stand – Two collection points beside the Ticket Uplift Window for Turnstiles 1-3 and Hospitality Entrance for Turnstiles 4-6
Renfrewshire Foodbank is part of the Trussell Trust Foodbanks. It provides emergency food to local people in crisis. It provides a minimum of 3 days food to those in need. People in Britain face hunger from time to time for a variety of reasons from Debt to Benefit delays to the new Welfare Reform stipulations. Renfrewshire Foodbank seeks to deal with the immediate crisis of food provision and go on from there to listen to the person and establish the root cause of the issue. We then signpost clients to agencies best placed to deal with the root cause. this prevents a dependency culture building up and in turn restores dignity and revives hope to those in need. Trussell Trust Foodbanks like Renfrewshire's work closely with other agencies to this ends. These agencies also hold food vouchers to issue to clients, therefore ensuring that the most in need benefit from the service.
 
(Details from the St Mirren Official Website)

 

Supporters Direct Scotland - National Football Survey

General SMiSA News
 
Click to undertake the survey - opens new window
 
The Supporters Direct Scotland National Football Survey, in association with the Scottish FA, is the second national football survey carried out, the first being conducted twelve months ago by the Scottish FA.

The survey seeks to bring a greater understanding of supporters’ perceptions of football's role within Scottish society, the match day experience, governance of the game as well as grassroots and youth development, among other topics.

Football fans can access the survey here. The survey launched yesterday and will close on Friday the 25th of April.

Paul Goodwin, Head of Supporters Direct Scotland said "Supporters are critical to the game in Scotland and will be increasingly so in the future. It's essential they are engaged in debates and discussions about the future of the game through surveys on key topics here. They are the lifeblood of the game and any changes to the game should have their best interests in mind".
 
Stewart Regan, Chief Executive of the Scottish FA, said: “The National Football Survey is essential in canvassing the thoughts of football fans in Scotland, regardless of the level of the game they are involved in. This survey poses a range of questions which we're seeking feedback and their views on for the benefit of the game.
 
“Last year’s survey gave the fans’ perspective on league reconstruction and already you can see the benefits of such areas as the pyramid and play-offs, both of which received the overwhelming support of the game’s fans.”
 
Remember, we're always looking for your views and opinions on the game's most pressing issues and there's numerous ways you can get involved. Please visit the Fans Parliament page on our website or contact us directly to see how you can get involved and give your views.

New Academy Coaching Software & SFA Youth Cup Semi-Final

General SMiSA News

SMiSA, The St.Mirren Supporters Trust have for over twelve years championed the Youth Development programme at St Mirren. We work closely with the Academy so we can understand where and when we can best assist with our support.

 

At our recent presentation of members funds to purchase essential equipment for the Academy we were shown a demonstration of a software package the coaches were keen to adopt. Sports Session Planner is a program used by some of the top sports clubs across the planet and we are delighted to inform that The St Mirren Supporters Trust have invested members' subscriptions reserved for youth development spending by way of purchasing this for the Academy. In very simple terms this will allow coaches more time to coach and spend less time at a desk, but the benefits of this are far greater and we will be following and tracking the use of this, and reporting back on the benefits of this investment.

 

There can be no argument that our continuous support of developing of young Saints players is justified. Our first team has a healthy percentage of graduates from the Academy and to coincide with our latest donation for Sports Session Planner, we believe it proper to highlight that our future stars in stripes will grace St.Mirren Park on Sunday 13th April to battle with Rangers in the Scottish FA Youth Cup Semi-Final.

 

Season tickets are valid for the game, and gate prices are minimal for others so it would be fantastic for a big turn out of the Saints fans for this one. Come along and support the young buddies and hopefully in seasons to come when this crop of talent have progressed into the first team and are climbing the steps at Hampden to collect winners medals you can recall the 13th April 2014.

 

Come on you Saints!

Changes at the SMiSA Trust Committee

General SMiSA News
Recently there have been a number of key changes to the trust committee at SMiSA.  The first of these is that sadly David Wilson has had to step down from our board.  David has been a great member of the committee & supporter of the trust for many years now.  In particular he has played a major part in running and organising events including the highly successful end of season Player of the Year Award events that the trust has planned over the years.  David will be continuing on as a member despite stepping down from this role and from all on the committee we'd like to take this opportunity to thank David for all of his efforts over the years and wish him all of the best going forward.
 
Fortunately however despite losing David from the committee, we're delighted in that we have been able to bring two more good buddies on board. Tony Dorris has come in and agreed to take on the role of Stakeholder Manager, and where possible will be seeking to gain outside investment for the trust from companies and other community funders.  He has already made a significant contribution to the trust in helping to secure 500 Emergency Ponchos for use of those fans at the front of the stadium who are unable to move to higher areas during sudden downpours, like we experienced versus Ross County in the ill-fated abandoned game at the start of November last year.
 
We're also very happy that Holly McCormack has agreed to come in to assist the trust as a media correspondent, helping to raise the profile of the trust and bring more and better multimedia coverage of what we at the trust are doing for the benefit of all at St Mirren and the most important people, the fans.
 
In addition to this, the existing committee members have had a slight swap around, with Wullie Bell, the trust secretary wishing to take on the role of helping to push up the trust's membership as a Trust Officer, and John White taking over his role as secretary.
 
We still do however have places left unfilled on the committee, so if anyone feels that they can contribute to the trust going forward in any way at all, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Statement on Provan Sports

General SMiSA News
The news that Provan Sports are severing ties with the club for a second time was received by the Supporters Trust with much sadness and great disappointment. Prior to Provan Sports returning our club had at best a minimal offering of club merchandise. Alan and his team quickly rectified this and continued where they had left off with an excellent service given to the St Mirren supporters.

We would like to thank Alan, John and all the Provan Sports staff for their service to the fans and their support of the Trust over the seasons. Based on the experience during their last absence they are going to be badly missed by the St Mirren supporters.

We understand that due to the replica kit deal and the merchandising being separate contracts Provan Sports have concluded that without the kit deal the merchandise side alone is not viable and therefore, sadly they have no choice but to sever the current arrangement with the club. No news has been forthcoming from St Mirren in relation to how this service is to be supplied moving forward and we fear that losing Provan Sports will take us back to the position where there will be no professional supply of this service, which for fans of a top Scottish professional football club is unacceptable.

Football clubs should never under estimate the importance of merchandise in particular the value this has to young supporters. Not everything can be measured in pounds and pence and while we appreciate that football is a business we would hope that given the deal with JD Sports is apparently such a fantastic one the upside of that contract would balance any potential deficit on the merchandising side.

Many Saints supporters have in recent seasons had issues with the supply of the replica kit from JD Sports which is very disappointing given the size of their retail operation. They do however possess Paisley town centre premises that could be utilized to supply Saints merchandise alongside the replica kit if they had the will to do so. It would make sense in so many ways if the replica kit and club merchandise could be purchased at the same location. It would be even better if this could also be replicated at the stadium outlet. If this is the plan we would welcome it even given our past experience with availability of the kit as it would be a vast improvement of having no St Mirren scarves available at the start of the season or only ice scrapers in the shop in July.

We call on the Directors at the club to ensure that the importance of this service is recognised and a suitable solution is sought to avoid the issues of seasons past either by JD Sports taking ownership of this or by way of appointing another professional retailer to supply this service.

SMiSA – The St Mirren Supporters Trust.

Marie Curie Cancer Care - Pre-Match Collection

General SMiSA News
SMiSA, the St Mirren Supporters Trust would like to help publicise that prior to tomorrow night's game at home to St Johnstone, Marie Curie Cancer Care will be doing a collection outside the stadium.
 
Trust committee member Wullie Bell will be assisting in the collection, and all donations to the charity will be gratefully accepted.