Some personal thoughts on the turnout and result.
As others have highlighted, there was a lot of communication around the vote; multiple emails, drop in sessions both online and in-person, a specific podcast episode dedicated to the proposal and several social media posts.
Personally I was a bit disappointed with the 9% turnout and there's no doubt lessons to be learned about how we can make the voting process clearer and easier for members.
We need to be doing more to strengthen democracy, empower members to make their voice heard and ultimately create a culture of engagement where members feel that their input matters - because it really does!
It's probably worth highlighting that we're not alone in low turnouts (not that it makes it better) when it comes to membership organisation internal votes. Trade Unions and Charities are a good example of this; the recent Unite the Union General Secretary election returned Sharon Graham with 10% of members voting, the Unison General Secretary vote in 2025 had a 7% turnout and the British Medical Association's council elections this year had a turnout of 5.3%. Recent by-elections in North Lanarkshire turnout has been 15-17%.
Again, not an excuse and we should be striving for improvement and higher engagement, but worth highlighting it's not unusual. Previous board elections had a turnout of 15% and the Barmack / Wildsheep vote the turnout was 56%.
I believe a big issue we have at the moment, as it's always been for the Society given the way it was set-up, is with data and that's a huge undertaking that colleagues have been working extremely hard on over the last couple of years. There's members who paid at first but have never paid since, members who may be deceased but we've never been notified, Junior Steels who have moved to adults but not fully converted therefore are not able to vote, duplicate records etc. I'm grateful to the many hours that colleagues have spent on this and with the proposed membership changes coming in to play for January 2027 following last years vote, we'll have a much clearer picture of the overall position which should in turn increase participation and revenue.
There's been a significant change in pace in recent years from the Society from my experience on the board and I'm confident we're moving in the right direction. I don't agree with the above post that suggests that the active investment approach was driven by the Club Board as a means of accessing cheap finance. Since 2019 we have steadily built a reserve fund that allows the club the platform and opportunity to grow, our board now want to further fuel that growth by investing money in the club in the form of long‑term loans on specific projects. Projects that will be voted on, and suggest by, our members. If the membership don't vote for said project, it won't happen.
I also completely agree that it is essential that all funds redirected are secured by being added to the existing loan amount and do not disappear by way of donation. I believe that this approach will bring more members to the Society when they see exactly where their money is going and how it is helping grow revenue for the football club - a win win for both parties.