Exeter City remain fully committed to meeting the requirements of EFL Regulation 129 regarding Supporter Engagement.
This commitment is a natural extension of our governance model, in which you our supporters are the Club’s majority shareholders through the Supporters’ Trust.
With supporters effectively being the majority shareholder we prioritise regular meaningful communication with you as a prerequisite to our relationship. We continue to do this through various channels including Fan Forums, Roundtable events, Grecian Group Collective, ad-hoc 1-1 meetings, visiting supporter groups, representation on the Football Supporters Association and our Supporters Annual Report.
We also communicate with supporters regularly through our website (Club and Trust), social media channels and email newsletters. Last season a number of surveys were run to ensure we were in a position to listen and act where appropriate.
The Club is always looking to improve and provide opportunities for you our supporters to be involved. The well respected and invaluable Supporter Roundtables, for example, provide a platform for a wide cross-section of supporters to feedback on their Club experiences and for the Club to engage on proposed events.
The turbulence of last summer, and the subsequent fallout, which unfortunately included the departure of several staff as the Club underwent a reset, had a significant impact on our engagement programme. Early in the season, the fire between the Away End and the Optimising IT Adam Stansfield Stand created another major disruption.
We did not let this hold us back. We still held one formal Grecian Groups collective and over the past 12 months two Supporter Roundtables.
Engagement continued, by necessity, through our established channels: the monthly Trust meetings and three Fans’ Forums. Mid season, we also conducted several social media surveys to maintain dialogue with supporters.'
Our performance against targets were:
| Target Area | Result |
Supporter Forums x 2 Surveys x 1 Round Table Meetings x 4 Grecian Groups x 3 Supporter Group Visits x 3 Club Calander Player Signing Event x1 Seniors’ Christmas Dinner x 1 Junior Grecians’ Supporter Club Activity x 5 Party at the Park Community Day x 1 | 3 – Overachieved 4 – Overachieved 1 – Partially Achieved 1 – Partially Achieved 1 - Partially Achieved 1 -Achieved 1 – Achieved 5 - Achieved 1- Achieved |
The Exeter City AFC Supporters’ Society (the Trust) is a benefit society that has been influencing Exeter City Football Club for over 25 years. Originally formed in 2000 to assist in the payment of players’ salaries it developed to purchasing a majority shareholding in 2003 as the Club came out of Administration. Following a further financial headache in 2014 the Trust obtained parity voting on the Club’s Board of Directors.
The Exeter City Supporters’ Trust is a democratic organisation with approximately 6,000 members. Elections are held annually, giving all members the opportunity to vote and to attend both the AGM and the monthly Trust Board meetings.
Membership has grown by more than 1,000 over the past two years, reflecting a healthy and increasingly representative Trust. This growth has enabled even more supporters to have their voices heard and to engage directly with decision makers.
Trustees are elected annually for three year terms and may serve for a maximum of nine consecutive years. The current Trust Board brings together a broad and valuable range of skills and experience.'
We recommend that all supporters seriously consider joining the Trust or Junior Grecians to ensure their voice and ability to influence is heard at the highest possible level.
At Exeter City we have achieved a great deal of progress as a result of consulting and engaging with our fan base. Such as regularly toping the Fan Engagement Index for seven consecutive seasons. Added to this we have continued achieve on-going Gold standard in the EFL Family Excellence Audits by mystery families. This year up to second position in League One and increasing our performance to 4th place in the full EFL 72 club chart.
A reflection of our success being that despite the huge disappointment of relegation from League One our attendances were up on the previous season to 6,655 . We are indebted to our supporters who continue to support the club.
Apart from the Trust there are a number of affiliated Supporter Groups whose input and engagement the Club and Trust value:
| Affiliated Supporter Groups | Volunteer Groups |
Disabled Supporters Association East Devon Grecians East Midland Grecians Exeter City Supporters’ Club Exeter City Women’s Supporters Club Her Game Too London Exiles North Devon Grecians Proud Grecians and LGBTQ+ Senior reds Yorkshire Grecians | Ambassadors (Match days) Cans4City ECFC Museum trust FECRACE Junior Grecians Monday Work Parties Post Match Tidy team Stadium Tour Guides Waste and Recycling |
Together: Our City, Our Club, Our Way.