July 2018 update

[Cairters_Corner]

Dear SMISA member

We hope all members are enjoying their summer. As it’s not long before we get to see St Mirren back in friendly action (before the World Cup even finishes, for those who don’t like going too long without football) it seems a good time to update you on the latest from SMISA…..

#BuyTheBuds two years on…we’re on our way to fan ownership

This month saw us pass a major milestone in the #BuyTheBuds campaign – and one achieved in a way we never thought possible when we set off on the fan ownership journey.

When ourselves and Gordon Scott agreed the deal to buy the majority shareholding in St Mirren from the selling consortium in June 2016, SMISA had two years to pay our £380,000 part of that purchase.

At the time we thought the only way we could manage this was by taking out a loan – to be paid back using member income. But with our membership numbers going much higher than the 1,000 we based our initial cash projections on, that picture started to change.

This month we made the final payment to the former directors – and are proud to say this has been done in full, entirely through member income, without a penny of borrowing.

This was only possible because of the continued commitment of you, the members – your support has put us further ahead than we thought we’d be at this stage.

Member numbers peaked at 1,374 in summer 2016 then dropped below 1,300 after the first year (we budgeted for a 10% drop-off in year one on the advice of other fan groups we consulted with).

But with a current membership of 1,264 we are at the same level as at the start of 2018 – and numbers have risen since the spring, with a few of you joining or re-joining in the past two months.

With the former directors now paid off in full, the next stage is for us to save up the £615,000 needed to buy Gordon’s majority shareholding, which we have until 2026 to do. Of course for the end goal of majority fan ownership to be achieved, we need you to stay with us until then.

While we build up the share purchase pot, we will continue to invest in and grow the club through the £2 pot, an original idea of ours described by Supporters Direct as ‘brilliant’ and ‘one of a kind’.

The more members we have, the greater SMISA’s ability to take St Mirren forward. We’ve achieved a lot over the past two years. Below is a list of what your membership made possible:

- the first-ever election to the St Mirren board of a fan representative. David Nicol continues to work hard as your voice in the boardroom and can be contacted on [email protected];

- part-funded the wheelchair platform in the main stand, giving St Mirren some of the best disabled facilities in Scotland;

- boosted the first-team budget in the dark days of January 2017 and helped fuel the incredible resurgence that sent us on our way to the Premier League;

- funded a community season ticket scheme which last season saw us bring hundreds of members of local community groups into the club and which will run again this year (see below);

- contributed to the club’s league-winning season by funding extra hours for the club’s sports scientist and match-day quality balls;

- supported the next generation of players by committing £50,000 to fund a one-third share of the new astrograss surface at Ralston, and sponsored the youth academy for the next two years;

- PLUS we helped the new St Mirren Ladies team set up, and sponsored their strips, part-funded pre-match entertainment to bring more young fans to games, sponsored a local youth football team, ran a series of fan events, funded and distributed two editions of The Saint newspaper, and helped set up a volunteer squad who have cleaned the stadium and helped with repairs at Ralston.

We are proud of those achievements and hope you are too – we want to do more of the above in future. If you know other fans you haven’t yet joined, they can do so now via our website.

Meet the manager event

As the new season rapidly approaches, we know fans will be keen to hear from the new man in the dugout – so SMISA has organised a meet-the-manager Q&A night where Alan Stubbs will take questions from the St Mirren support for the first time.

It will be on Tuesday 31 July in the hospitality suite at the stadium, with doors open from 6.30pm for a 7pm start. The event is open to all fans and is free to attend, but should it reach capacity, it will be first come, first served. You can guarantee your place by registering via the Eventbrite link here.

Volunteer help

As part of our ongoing work to boost our membership, SMISA will have a presence at a couple of local events – Sma’ Shot Day and Weave festival in Paisley town centre on Saturday 7 July, and the SMFC Fans Council Open Day at the stadium on Sunday 8 July.

Some of our committee will be there but we are looking for volunteers to help us hand out fliers, spread the word about SMISA and help us sign up new members. If anyone can spare even an hour or so on either day and would like to help, please contact [email protected]

Ladies team thank SMISA members

In our January £2 spend ballot, SMISA members agreed to make £2,055 available to the newly-formed St Mirren Ladies team – used to buy a set of strips (with SMISA logo as main sponsor) plus cover other kit and start-up costs.

A couple of the SMISA committee visited the ladies training to see how they are getting on – and head coach Kate Cooper thanked SMISA members for their support.

She said: "The financial support provided by SMiSA has been instrumental in developing the women's team by providing the players and staff with quality kit, and making them feel part of the St Mirren football family…it has been invaluable in helping the women's team become not only visible in the community but enabling them to establish themselves within the Paisley community.”

You can read the full story and see the pictures on our website

Community season tickets

SMISA is again this year running a community season ticket scheme – we have bought 24 season tickets for the main stand and will make those seats available – free of charge – to Renfrewshire community groups.

We did this last year and are pleased to have brought into St Mirren hundreds of people who would have benefitted from – and who may not have been able to afford – a day out at the football.

Groups to benefit last season include: Shelter Scotland, Good Community Relations Project Renfrewshire, Crisis Counselling – Erskine, Star Project, Turning Point Renfrewshire, Cairn Housing Association, Active Communities, Women's Aid Renfrewshire, Who Cares Scotland Advocacy and RAMH (Recovery Across Mental Health).

If any of our members know of a Renfrewshire-based group who would make good use of the tickets, please contact SMISA committee member Jim Cumming at [email protected]

July £2 spend ballot

We are putting the finishing touches to the July £2 pot ballot – and details and your voting link will be emailed out in about a week’s time, so keep an eye out for them arriving.

As always, if there’s any other questions, drop us a line at [email protected]. See you for the new season.

The SMISA committee

[bazil85]

7 hours ago, Cairters_Corner said:

Dear SMISA member

We hope all members are enjoying their summer. As it’s not long before we get to see St Mirren back in friendly action (before the World Cup even finishes, for those who don’t like going too long without football) it seems a good time to update you on the latest from SMISA…..

#BuyTheBuds two years on…we’re on our way to fan ownership

This month saw us pass a major milestone in the #BuyTheBuds campaign – and one achieved in a way we never thought possible when we set off on the fan ownership journey.

When ourselves and Gordon Scott agreed the deal to buy the majority shareholding in St Mirren from the selling consortium in June 2016, SMISA had two years to pay our £380,000 part of that purchase.

At the time we thought the only way we could manage this was by taking out a loan – to be paid back using member income. But with our membership numbers going much higher than the 1,000 we based our initial cash projections on, that picture started to change.

This month we made the final payment to the former directors – and are proud to say this has been done in full, entirely through member income, without a penny of borrowing.

This was only possible because of the continued commitment of you, the members – your support has put us further ahead than we thought we’d be at this stage.

Member numbers peaked at 1,374 in summer 2016 then dropped below 1,300 after the first year (we budgeted for a 10% drop-off in year one on the advice of other fan groups we consulted with).

But with a current membership of 1,264 we are at the same level as at the start of 2018 – and numbers have risen since the spring, with a few of you joining or re-joining in the past two months.

With the former directors now paid off in full, the next stage is for us to save up the £615,000 needed to buy Gordon’s majority shareholding, which we have until 2026 to do. Of course for the end goal of majority fan ownership to be achieved, we need you to stay with us until then.

While we build up the share purchase pot, we will continue to invest in and grow the club through the £2 pot, an original idea of ours described by Supporters Direct as ‘brilliant’ and ‘one of a kind’.

The more members we have, the greater SMISA’s ability to take St Mirren forward. We’ve achieved a lot over the past two years. Below is a list of what your membership made possible:

- the first-ever election to the St Mirren board of a fan representative. David Nicol continues to work hard as your voice in the boardroom and can be contacted on [email protected];

- part-funded the wheelchair platform in the main stand, giving St Mirren some of the best disabled facilities in Scotland;

- boosted the first-team budget in the dark days of January 2017 and helped fuel the incredible resurgence that sent us on our way to the Premier League;

- funded a community season ticket scheme which last season saw us bring hundreds of members of local community groups into the club and which will run again this year (see below);

- contributed to the club’s league-winning season by funding extra hours for the club’s sports scientist and match-day quality balls;

- supported the next generation of players by committing £50,000 to fund a one-third share of the new astrograss surface at Ralston, and sponsored the youth academy for the next two years;

- PLUS we helped the new St Mirren Ladies team set up, and sponsored their strips, part-funded pre-match entertainment to bring more young fans to games, sponsored a local youth football team, ran a series of fan events, funded and distributed two editions of The Saint newspaper, and helped set up a volunteer squad who have cleaned the stadium and helped with repairs at Ralston.

We are proud of those achievements and hope you are too – we want to do more of the above in future. If you know other fans you haven’t yet joined, they can do so now via our website.

Meet the manager event

As the new season rapidly approaches, we know fans will be keen to hear from the new man in the dugout – so SMISA has organised a meet-the-manager Q&A night where Alan Stubbs will take questions from the St Mirren support for the first time.

It will be on Tuesday 31 July in the hospitality suite at the stadium, with doors open from 6.30pm for a 7pm start. The event is open to all fans and is free to attend, but should it reach capacity, it will be first come, first served. You can guarantee your place by registering via the Eventbrite link here.

Volunteer help

As part of our ongoing work to boost our membership, SMISA will have a presence at a couple of local events – Sma’ Shot Day and Weave festival in Paisley town centre on Saturday 7 July, and the SMFC Fans Council Open Day at the stadium on Sunday 8 July.

Some of our committee will be there but we are looking for volunteers to help us hand out fliers, spread the word about SMISA and help us sign up new members. If anyone can spare even an hour or so on either day and would like to help, please contact [email protected]

Ladies team thank SMISA members

In our January £2 spend ballot, SMISA members agreed to make £2,055 available to the newly-formed St Mirren Ladies team – used to buy a set of strips (with SMISA logo as main sponsor) plus cover other kit and start-up costs.

A couple of the SMISA committee visited the ladies training to see how they are getting on – and head coach Kate Cooper thanked SMISA members for their support.

She said: "The financial support provided by SMiSA has been instrumental in developing the women's team by providing the players and staff with quality kit, and making them feel part of the St Mirren football family…it has been invaluable in helping the women's team become not only visible in the community but enabling them to establish themselves within the Paisley community.”

You can read the full story and see the pictures on our website

Community season tickets

SMISA is again this year running a community season ticket scheme – we have bought 24 season tickets for the main stand and will make those seats available – free of charge – to Renfrewshire community groups.

We did this last year and are pleased to have brought into St Mirren hundreds of people who would have benefitted from – and who may not have been able to afford – a day out at the football.

Groups to benefit last season include: Shelter Scotland, Good Community Relations Project Renfrewshire, Crisis Counselling – Erskine, Star Project, Turning Point Renfrewshire, Cairn Housing Association, Active Communities, Women's Aid Renfrewshire, Who Cares Scotland Advocacy and RAMH (Recovery Across Mental Health).

If any of our members know of a Renfrewshire-based group who would make good use of the tickets, please contact SMISA committee member Jim Cumming at [email protected]

July £2 spend ballot

We are putting the finishing touches to the July £2 pot ballot – and details and your voting link will be emailed out in about a week’s time, so keep an eye out for them arriving.

As always, if there’s any other questions, drop us a line at [email protected]. See you for the new season.

The SMISA committee

Great update. Key points for me are 

Amazing that we’ve Paid off former directors without external funding 

Membership numbers up last quarter (despite people banging on about them going down after the £50k vote) 

promotional events for new SMISA members coming up 

Q&A session with management 

£2 spend to be determined in next couple weeks 

[Drew]

Aye, dropped into my mailbox last night.

I'm quite happy with what seems to be an upbeat message that highlights the considerable progress that has been made.

It's a pity that some folk have felt the need to opt out, but that is clearly their call and entitlement. Fortunately, it doesn't look as though the drop off in membership has had any major detrimental impact. Which is a surprise, to some degree, as I feared that the loss of Dickson's alleged £25 a month would sound the death knell for the scheme.

Phew!

[Drew]

3 minutes ago, bazil85 said:

Great update. Key points for me are 

Amazing that we’ve Paid off former directors without external funding 

Membership numbers up last quarter (despite people banging on about them going down after the £50k vote) 

promotional events for new SMISA members coming up 

Q&A session with management 

£2 spend to be determined in next couple weeks 

You really didn't need to quote it, though.

FFS

[FTOF]

I'm happy that we seem to have struck a good balance between helping out the club and being involved in the community.

However, I'm sure that we could further improve in both areas.

 

[bazil85]

37 minutes ago, Drew said:

You really didn't need to quote it, though.

FFS

Becausee everyone will want to read a several page update? 

[bazil85]

39 minutes ago, Drew said:

Aye, dropped into my mailbox last night.

I'm quite happy with what seems to be an upbeat message that highlights the considerable progress that has been made.

It's a pity that some folk have felt the need to opt out, but that is clearly their call and entitlement. Fortunately, it doesn't look as though the drop off in membership has had any major detrimental impact. Which is a surprise, to some degree, as I feared that the loss of Dickson's alleged £25 a month would sound the death knell for the scheme.

Phew!

Can you imagine if he did £25 per username? BTB would be paid off in months... 

[Bud the Baker]

Quote

With the former directors now paid off in full, the next stage is for us to save up the £615,000 needed to buy Gordon’s majority shareholding, which we have until 2026 to do. Of course for the end goal of majority fan ownership to be achieved, we need you to stay with us until then.

Is that all of his shares or just the ones he bought as part of the takeover?

[bazil85]

3 hours ago, Bud the Baker said:

Is that all of his shares or just the ones he bought as part of the takeover?

Good question, has anyone ever confirmed that? I wouldn’t be bothered either way though tbh. We will have a controlling share and there are lots of shareholders in St Mirren anyway outside of SMISA and GLS

[div]

Really good, positive update. A massive achievement to have raised almost £400K within 2 and a bit years.

Hopefully meeting that big milestone will encourage others to join up. Every single member makes us stronger.

[Lord Pityme]

4 hours ago, Bud the Baker said:

Is that all of his shares or just the ones he bought as part of the takeover?

Just the new ones he bought.

[bazil85]

15 minutes ago, div said:

Really good, positive update. A massive achievement to have raised almost £400K within 2 and a bit years.

Hopefully meeting that big milestone will encourage others to join up. Every single member makes us stronger.

Let’s hope so mate. I know some people still have gripes with small aspects of BTB (mainly the £2 spend) but can’t argue with this progress. 

Hope some fans that haven’t signed up or previously cancelled evaluate how good this is for our club and maybe get themselves down to the Q&A. No reason we can’t grow numbers. £12/£25 for a lot of people is very affordable.