10000Hours News

5 Ways To Back The Bid !

on 06 December 2011.

Following on from the leaflet campaign at the recent Inverness match, we are now looking at ways to increase awareness of the bid, and of ways that we can all help to get the message across that the bid is very much still alive, and to take it forward..... 5 ways to back the bid!

1. Consider your Commitment

As the CIC is now a fully-fledged Co-op, there is now the opportunity to contribute more each month in exchange for eventual equity ownership in 10000hours CIC which would own the 52% of SMFC.

All over 16 year old individual members were previously asked to direct debit £10 per month.

However now that the amount you contribute will be translated into equity you now have the option to contribute more. Already we have been contacted by many members who wish to up their monthly contribution to £20, £50 and in one case, so far, £500 per month, so please consider if you can contribute any more to the purchase.

If you would like to contribute more then just e-mail us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your details or use our online contact form.

2. Contact your elected official

Community ownership and empowerment is a large part of the current Government and Oppositions policy position, as well as the UK government with its BIG SOCIETY policies.

It is now time to engage your local MP, MSP and Councillors and see if they back the bid.

Visit http://www.10000hours.org/mp to find out how to do it and get an email template suggestion.

3. 10000hours Forum and Facebook

Please consider joining the 10000hours forum here on the site or our pages on Facebook. This will be the easiest and quickest way for you to find out what is happening and ask any questions you have on the issues.

4. Ask a friend

Please download the information flyer from the website and ask a friend if they would consider joining the10000hours St Mirren Fans Co-operative - just as you have done.

5. Talk about it
It is really important to get the message out to as many people as possible about the opportunity for the Fans and the Community to Govern and Own the Club.

While the local media is great at carrying information it is more difficult to reach the world-wide Buddies community and others that may have a special place for St Mirren in their hearts. So please contact whatever media you can, phone and e-mail your buddies overseas and try and encourage all who are interested to register their support for 10000hours.

Thank you for your continued support. Together we CAN make this happen !

New Website Live

on 02 December 2011.

Our revamped website is now live as you can see !

One of the main criticisms of 10000Hours in the past has been that of poor communication. We hope the new site with it's new features will help to engage with the online support, and of course we are looking to make many improvements with how we communicate with the offline fans too.

Please bear with us whilst the site settles down. It has been a big effort to get it live following the meeting on Wednesday evening but we are confident it will serve us better as we move the co-operative forward.

Use the enquiry form or the new online forum (you will need to register to use that and confirm your email address before being allowed to post) to tell us about any bugs or problems with the new site or any suggestions you might have as to how it might be improved.

Leafleting Plea

on 02 December 2011.

As most of you will know, the fan buyout of St Mirren is at a crucial stage. We are on the verge of a historic moment for the club and the town of Paisley. We have a genuine chance for us, the fans, to own and be involved in the running of our football club.

It could truly be called our football club, if this is successful!

However, the success of the buyout is reliant on getting the message out to as many people as possible! The most obvious starting place is with the fans at St.Mirren Park.

With this in mind, we have put together a leaflet that we will be handing out at the turnstiles this Saturday 3rd December, St Mirren vs ICT.

You can download a copy of this leaflet now by clicking through to our downloads section

In order to have every turnstile covered and get a leaflet into the hands of every fan who attends, we need as many people as are available who are willing to hand out flyers.

If you can spare an hour and a half before the match on Saturday, you will be doing your bit to spread the word.

We will be meeting at the Main Stand, Greenhill Road, at the fans wall of fame, between the main entrance and the ticket office at 1:30pm.

The turnstiles open at 2pm and so we'll have 30 minutes to organise ourselves and divvy up the leaflets.

Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible!

The10000Hours Team

Meeting on 30th Nov

on 26 November 2011.

We are pleased to confirm the meeting to discuss the way forward for the proposed Fan and Community based buy out of the 52% shareholding will go ahead next Wednesday night the 30th at 7pm at St Mirren Park.

We are however aware that there is widespread industrial action planned for next Wednesday so the meeting will be covered online (details to follow) and we will arrange a second meeting should we get the feedback that many interested in coming have been unable to attend because of the industrial action.

We will endeavour to release further information nearer the time, however we feel it is important to reiterate the key points that we believe make the 10000hours CiC Fan and Community ownership model the best for the club.

•    Fan Governance and Community ownership: This is a genuine guarantee of the C.I.C model and does not deliver simply a token gesture, i.e. a fans representative on the board.

•    Unpaid board members.

•    The opportunity for fans to achieve a seat on the club board: The C.I.C model will create an avenue for fans, with the appropriate skills and willingness to apply them for the benefit of the club and community, to have a seat on the club BoD without the barrier of personal wealth. Not as a token gesture but as a genuine board member, with equal rights and responsibilities.

•    That the stadium of the Club and other capital assets should be "asset locked".

•    That no borrowing should be made which either requires security against the assets of the club or payment from the club to individuals or companies with the purpose of repaying any personal or corporate debt incurred in purchasing club shares.

•    That St Mirren Park Facilities are utilized not just for the benefit of the club but for the whole Community.

Hope to see as many of you as possible on Wednesday.

Regards

The 10000Hours Team

10000Hours Update

on 20 November 2011.

Some time ago we let you know that we had just the one final hurdle to overcome to achieve the full funding of the C.I.C in order to push ahead with the purchase of the shares from the selling Consortium.

Unfortunately after many, many more weeks than anticipated we have not been able to get over this final hurdle.

However we have been working in the background to put together an alternative funding proposal for the 52% share purchase.

It has been agreed with the selling consortium that we will continue to explore this alternative.

However, in fairness to them, they will also explore other options to see if they meet their desire to secure the long term success of St Mirren.

We still believe that the Club owned and controlled by the fans and integrated into the community provides the best way to grow the Club and secure its future for the coming generations.

Over 800 individuals plus Community and Corporate organisations indicated their support for a fan controlled Community Interest Company to take ownership of the majority shareholding and while it is immensely disappointing to have got so close to completing the purchase, the opportunity still exists.

We therefore propose to have an open meeting for anyone to ask questions regarding the previous proposal and to discuss the way forward.

As we have said all along a Community Interest Company needs the Community to be Interested....if the Community still is interested then we believe we can still make this happen

We intend to hold the meeting on 30th of November (7pm) at St.Mirren Park, confirmation to follow.

Finally we do apologise for being quiet for the last while, this has been necessary during the final attempts to complete the deal.

Regards

10000hours team