A message from Trust Chair Pete Ferlie

I wanted to take the opportunity to write to all of you following on from Tuesday’s Supporters' Trust Fans' Forum. Doing so gives me the chance to reflect upon a lively and engaging session and provide a short summary of some of the key updates.  I also wanted to thank all of you who showed up in person or streamed the meeting online. We as Trustees, are very grateful for the incredible engagement we get from our owners at events such as this and it’s important we acknowledge it!

To start, we had a brilliant Q and A session with Gary. He provided a real insight into the challenges of keeping us competitive at League One level, the hard work and detail that goes into preparation for big games like the Devon Derby. He and his team, both support staff and the squad, continue to be a real credit, and we are very grateful for his leadership and for his generosity in giving his time as well as the candour with which he spoke. Thank you, Gary!

In the ‘second half’, some members of our new Trust Board were able to join me and provide, hopefully some interesting reflections on the early days of Trust Board membership as well as set out some of our immediate areas of focus and activity as a collective.

I was happy to announce that our Vice Chair Tony Badcott, will lead an internal review into the Trust’s response to the financial challenges that emerged at the Club over the summer. We hope Tony will be in a position to share the findings of this review to the Trust Board in January, and we appreciate the importance of sharing these with you, our owners. As mentioned in my previous message to members and at the Fans’ Forum, this is the start of our “Reflect, Refresh and Move Forward” process.

As Trustees on a new Trust Board, we are already working very hard to put in place effective governance through the Trust Finance and Governance Group. This will include improving the connection between Club and Trust Board and between Trust Board and you, our members. We are developing a renewed focus on clear and timely communications from our website, through updates as well as hopefully making some immediate and tangible improvements to the way Trust Board Meetings are streamed; so important given the high levels of engagement with our members we enjoy.

You will recall back in August 2025 we conducted a poll on minimum Trust membership fees. There was overwhelming support for an increase, with £5 per month drawing the most support. We had initially hoped to introduce the new £5 fee from December, but have now resolved to put in place the new charge from February 2026. This allows for important system updates to be made on the Very Connect platform and means fees won’t increase in the run-up to Christmas. We’ll also be doing some work to encourage existing standing order subscribers to convert to other payment methods, freeing up our Membership Secretary to focus on driving Trust Membership take up.

Finally, we look forward to seeing many of you at the next Trust Board Meeting on Monday, 8 December, either in the room or virtually. But before all of that, hopefully we can encourage as many of you to join us at the Wycombe FA Cup game to roar us into the third round and hopefully a big draw (perhaps Everton away). Thank you again for your continued engagement and support. 

Pete Ferlie - Exeter City Supporters' Trust Chair