Fellow members

You will already be aware the Trust committee has been working with former St. Mirren director Gordon Scott in recent months on a joint offer for the majority shareholding in the club held by the consortium (http://www.smisa.net/news-archive/180-smisa-statement-fan-ownership-gordon-scott). Below is an update on progress with that.

The model we are working towards would - if a deal is agreed - see Gordon become chairman and majority shareholder, while SMiSA would substantially increase its shareholding and receive a place on the board.

The Trust would then continue to fundraise over the long term to buy out Gordon's shares, meaning the fans would ultimately have majority ownership of SMFC at some point down the line.

While the current board deserve enormous credit for all they have done for the club over the past two decades, they have made it clear they want to move on and they will, at some point, sell up.

We believe our model is the best possible option for the club and for Paisley and see it as the only viable way to keep St. Mirren in the hands of the people who will care for it best...you.

The news is that SMiSA representatives and Gordon recently met with members of the consortium for some initial discussions around our offer.

Nothing has been agreed, and we would stress more work will be needed before there could ever be an agreement.

But the discussion was positive and all parties are committed to working together to look at routes through which agreement could be found.

Of course any deal would only be agreed in principle - nothing can or will be signed without first being approved by a vote of all SMiSA members.

In the meantime the SMiSA committee will continue to work behind the scenes to refine our model. As you can imagine a share purchase of this size is a massive undertaking.

In the past few months we have been very busy as we work through the financial, fundraising and legal aspects of the deal and there remains a lot of work to be done on our side.

We have also met with colleagues at the ‘Foundation of Hearts’, who have successfully pulled off a scheme similar to our own, and would like to thank them for their advice, which has been a massive help to us.

In terms of further announcements, we want to make sure we are as open as possible but hope you would appreciate the negotiations bring a need for confidentiality, meaning there are aspects we simply cannot go into for now.

With such a complex deal, negotiations were never going to be straightforward or be over with quickly.

However we will continue to keep members up to date as soon as there is something we are able to report.

The SMiSA Committee

During the close season the current SMiSA committee of 11 members have been involved in the continued promotion and attainment of the Trust principles and aims, and although we hope to have even more additions and achievements to report on later this month, you will see below that despite the close season and holiday period that as a Trust Board we have strived to maintain our efforts.

The Trust is continuing to grow in every sense of the word thanks to every member’s involvement and support which ultimately benefits St.Mirren, the fans and the community now, and for the future.

Over 200 members – from 65 members 6 of whom made up the committee, in January 2014, there has been a sustained and steady increase and just last week the membership passed the 200 mark, 11 of whom are actively recognised as the committee, or to use the legal term ‘board members’. This increase has allowed the initiatives below to be addressed with, so far, positive outcomes.

SMiSA Panda Club – has been rebranded for a second season at a cost of £2500 which ensures the concept remains open to young potential saints fans of the future allowing them to attend fully supervised coaching and match attendance for only £2 (zero cost if they are season ticket holders)

YD Academy Sponsorship – The Trust is recognised as the youth academy’s main sponsor and during the month of July a total of £1400 + £400 + £79 in sponsorship has been used to purchase vital equipment for the academy. (new balls, training software etc) which you will see photos of on the website promoting the sponsorship.

Player kit sponsorship – Last season the Trust sponsored two player kits (details in any match program), specifically James Marwood home kit and Mark Ridgers away kit. At the end of the season the relevant players shirts are passed to the sponsors and names of Trust members are drawn randomly. The Trust members who won these two tops were Alan Jones and Ian Smart who have both been contacted and collection of the shirts arranged. This season however it is only intended to sponsor one player kit at a cost of £350 and this will be arranged shortly with the clubs commercial department and again at the end of the season there will be a draw made within the membership.

St.Mirren General Manager – Regular monthly meetings have been taking place for some time now and have become a matter of routine engagement and are always attended by Brian Caldwell, at least one representative of the Youth Academy and two of the Trust committee. Although you will have read above about some of the items undertaken in support of the clubs youth academy it is also of benefit to SMiSA in that any projects or initiatives the Trust is undertaking will ensure we are supported and assistance is provided where required such as events, share purchase, facilities, promotion of the Trust etc etc and more importantly that dialogue is maintained between both parties.

As a member of SMiSA if you have any points you would like to be taken up with the general manager, or indeed anyone at the club, please do not hesitate to contact us and your point will be submitted for discussion at the the following meeting.

Fan ownership – As you will be aware, the trust board has been working with former St Mirren director Gordon Scott to investigate the feasibility of a joint offer for the majority shareholding in the club held by the consortium, and we made all members aware of this by email on 1 July

We were delighted by the feedback we had to the announcement, which was overwhelmingly positive, and that has encouraged us to keep pushing forward.

To recap, the model we are working on would see meaningful fan representation over the short and medium term, and majority fan ownership over the long term. 

The idea is that Gordon will put up the majority of the cash for an offer to the consortium while the trust fundraise the rest.

If the offer was accepted, Gordon would become club chairman and SMiSA would receive a place on the board, but would continue to fundraise to buy Gordon’s shares at some point in the future.

We are doing this because we believe no one will take better care of our club than you, the fans. We also believe this model offers us the most viable and sustainable way of making that happen.

But as we made clear at the time, we are still at the early stages of a very long process.

There remains plenty work to be done before we could make a formal offer to the consortium, or be in a position run the sort of fundraising campaign required.

We are conscious this is the first communication on the subject since the initial statement, however we have been busy behind the scenes in the past month.

As we are sure you would understand, such a complex undertaking takes a lot of time and effort to do properly, and we are keen to ensure everything is carried out in a professional manner.

Among other things, we have been researching fundraising models, budget projections and legal considerations.

We are excited by the possibilities of what we are working on, but are determined to make sure our model is viable and robust before putting anything on the table.

We would ask that you bear with

us in the meantime as we will update members further once we have something more concrete to share.

And we would reiterate that any potential deal would require to be voted on by the SMiSA membership before it could be agreed.

Private Share Purchase – Before the potential for the Trust to consider pursuing the consortiums 51% shareholding it was public knowledge that the Trust was intending to buy St.Mirren shares from other shareholders and several offers were taken up. In light of the Fan Ownership initiative general purchase of privately owned shares will cease until further notice (pending the outcome of the 51%). The last of the pending purchases was completed recently and no further offers will be initiated.

At this point therefore the Trust shareholding in St.Mirren FC is as follows:

Original shares purchased from club         = 3877 shares

Private shares purchased since Nov 2014 = 2465 shares at a total cost of £12,325

Total shareholding = 6342

This equates to 3.3% shareholding in St.Mirren

Acknowledgement – the Trust board would like to thank you for your continued involvement with SMiSA and we would hope that you help promote the Trust at every opportunity and encourage others to get involved and help ensure collectively we all continue to MAKE A DIFFERENCE to the club and the community.

Any feedback, questions or comments are always appreciated therefore please do not hesitate to get in touch at any time either by replying to this email address or on facebook.com/1877SocietyLtd or twitter.com/1877SocietyLtd

Regards

John White on behalf of SMiSA

COYS

 

 

There have been some important developments of late which the committee of the trust are keen to share with members and the wider support.

Over the past few weeks we have been working with former St Mirren director Gordon Scott on plans to make a joint offer for the shares held by the selling consortium.

As part of our research into that we conducted a survey of fans, which had about 600 responses, and we would like to thank everybody who took the time to fill it out.

All in, 96% of fans backed the idea of fan ownership, and 94% backed the principle of a fan on the board, while 60% said they would be willing to make a financial contribution towards a scheme that would bring about either or both.

Those results have encouraged us to go public on plans which – if realised – could ensure St Mirren stays in the hands of the people who care about it most...you.

Members of the consortium have already indicated to the trust that they are happy to listen to what we put forward.

We would stress things are at an early stage and there is a lot of work to be done before we would be in a position to make a formal offer to them.

However we have the basis of a plan which - should an offer be accepted - would bring about meaningful fan representation over the short and medium term, and a transfer to majority fan ownership over the long term.

The model we are looking into is as follows:
- Gordon will put up most of the money, and SMiSA will fundraise the rest. The fundraising campaign will only start if we agree a deal in principle with the consortium;
- if a deal is done, Gordon would become the majority shareholder and chairman of the club;
- SMiSA would substantially increase its shareholding, and receive a place on the board, to be elected by the fans;
- Both parties would have an agreement that would see SMiSA continue to fundraise over several years to raise the cash to buy Gordon’s majority shareholding at some point in the future

The financial details are still to be decided but we envisage a £10-per-month membership scheme being the primary source of long-term ongoing funding, while other short-term income streams would be needed to fund the trust’s contribution to the initial share purchase.

The trust has a five-figure sum of money in the bank as it stands, however we would only commit this towards an offer for the shares if a majority of members were happy for us to do so.

We see the benefits of the proposed model as being as follows:
- the current board deserves a tremendous amount of credit for the job they have done over the years, but they have made it clear they would like to move on. This would allow them to do so while keeping the club in the hands of St Mirren supporters;
- it would see control of St Mirren transfer to Gordon, a lifelong Saints fan with the business background and boardroom experience to take the club forward, while the fans would have a direct representative with influence over its day-to-day running;
- the previous attempt at fan ownership suffered because it had to find all the money at once; this would be different as Gordon’s presence means an ‘Ann Budge model’ where we would have years to raise the funds to buy him out and put a viable fan ownership structure in place;

We are very keen to hear the thoughts of members and the wider support on these plans, and invite your feedback.

Although we believe SMiSA is best placed to be the vehicle through which this process should happen, ultimately it belongs to everybody who cares about St Mirren.

We have already begun the process of engaging with fan groups because we know what we are proposing will only work if the wider support is willing to back it.

As it stands, the SMiSA committee is a small group and we would welcome the input of any fans who feel they have the expertise and skills to help us take it forward.

As we say, things are at a very early stage and there are a lot of hurdles which would need to be cleared before any of this could become reality.

It won’t happen overnight, but we will do our best to keep members and the wider support updated whenever there are developments to be shared.

However, we are excited by the possibilities of what this could mean for our club and hope you are too.

The SMiSA committee

 

 

Paisley’s MSP George Adam has recently been nominated as the new Chairman of SMiSA, The St Mirren Independent Supporters Association.  Born and bred in Paisley, George has been supporting St Mirren for over 40 years.  He takes on this role at an interesting time for the club and SMiSA, with the club up for sale and SMiSA looking to increase supporter involvement at board level. 

 

 

Speaking on the appointment, George said, “I’m delighted to have been nominated as the Chairman of SMiSA.  With awareness and membership of SMiSA growing, it is a great time to be a part of this this fan run supporter trust.  SMiSA has always been their championing the views of the fans, while helping to fund projects like the dome, subsidising the Panda club and even buying new balls for the training ground.  I am proud to be a member of the trust and hope to be able to do my bit in taking SMiSA forward at all levels in my new role.”

We asked this year's SMiSA 'Saint for a Day' raffle winner Martyn Blair to give us his thoughts on the big game. Which despite a very rainy start to the day the weather did clear for kick off!

 

 

"First of all I would like to thank SMiSA for drawing my name out of the hat for the raffle. 

When I received the message that I won the raffle it was completely unexpected and couldn't wait to take part in Saint for a Day. Being a season ticket holder since a young age it's always been a dream to play on the St.Mirren pitch. 

It was a great experience to on Sunday go into the dressing room and get ready for the game. Then to finally walk out the tunnel was probably the highlight of the day. The game was very tight through out the whole game and even into penalties there was nothing between the teams. I'm just glad that I was able to slot away my penalty. Was great to meet some of the players who turned up at the day and able to talk away to the manager Gary Teale. 

All in all the whole day was something I'll remember my whole life and least I can always say I've played on the pitch and scored a penalty.

Thanks again"

 

Left: SMiSA committee member Barry Mitchell & Martyn Blair.

Right: Manager Gary Teale & Martyn Blair.

 

 

SMiSA held its AGM for 2015 last weekend after a year of progress for the trust.

A healthy turnout of around 50 members gathered in the hospitality suite at St Mirren Park to hear about the ups and downs of the past 12 months, and to consider how the turst can continue to support the club in future.

Secretary John White chaired the meeting and opened with a vote where the trust’s accounts for 2014 were approved and John Blair was retained as independent auditor.

The meeting then considered progress against targets set at the start of 2014 in terms of membership and share ownership.

Membership was given as 175, falling short of what John admitted was a very ambitious target of 350, but still representing a big increase on the Jan 2014 total of 65.

The trust now owns 6,042 shares in the club (around 3% of the total), having made a number of purchases from individual shareholders in the past year and thus exceeding the target of 6,000.
 

Negative outcomes

Next up was a look at some of the negative outcomes and areas for improvement in the past 12 months.

Top of the list was a shares bid proposal – the trust had in early 2014 produced a paper looking into a buyout of the consortium’s 52% shareholding.

The committee at the time met with various people to gauge support and said Stewart Gilmour was very much open to discussion.

But it was felt that individuals with the willingness and capability to provide the levels of finance required weren’t there.

The committee also felt the project would have been a full-time job for several people and the resource just wasn’t there to make it happen.

John explained his reason for going public on this now was he was aware the club’s ownership remains a hot topic and he wanted the membership to be aware a trust-led buyout had been looked into, but wasn’t feasible at this stage.

Other negatives covered included the loss of a couple of long-serving members from the committee in Alastair Colqhoun and Dave Tennant, and the limited number of trust events.
 

Positive outcomes

But in terms of positive outcomes, there were a few points to be covered. Top of the list was the SMiSA Panda Club which the trust had subsidised for the season to the tune of £2,500.

That had allowed the club to cut the price for the Panda club – which provides football coaching and match entry to young fans aged five to 12 – from £5 to £2.

Committee member Tony Dorris explained the Panda club was now averaging around 60 kids a game compared to 40 before, and was bringing in kids in who hadn’t been St Mirren fans before.

John also touched on the loan of £50,000 from the trust for the Airdome behind the away stand, which had allowed the club to increase its community activity and the status of its youth academy.

Other positive developments included an increased number of committee members, and regular meetings between members of the trust committee and Brian Caldwell at the club.
 

Objectives

John then invited a wider discussion on what the trust’s objectives should be for the next year.

It was suggested that the drive to increase the membership further could be aided by asking the club to include an option to the join the trust on season ticket renewal forms.

This led to a wider discussion about the general direction of the club under the current board, during which some strong views were expressed. It was felt the club was being allowed to drift towards relegation and some members suggested the board appeared to be doing little about it.

Fan ownership was mentioned again, allowing new committee member and local MSP George Adam to update the meeting on the Community Empowerment Bill currently going through the Scottish Parliament, which contains an amendment whereby supporters’ trusts get first option to buy their club should they go up for sale.

Election of committee

John explained that some of the present committee were due for re-election and that some of the new members who had been co-opted on in recent months required to be formally elected.

The following were voted in – Jim Cumming, Tony Dorris, Jim Crawford, Colin Orr, Barry Mitchell and Peter Black.

John White, Willie Bell, David Nicol and George Adam were also co-opted, giving a ten-man membership to the new committee.

John closed the AGM by thanking everyone for attending and saying: “Everybody should be proud of what we have achieved as in 2014 as we have come a long way. We were off track for a few years but now we are very much back on track.”