that of any ordinary member". Co-operation Green already had a track record in the UK co-operative movement. As well as her status as a Labour and Co-operative MEP and advisory position with the Co-operative Union, she had been a Woodcraft Folk leader and was made president of the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) in 1999. As an MEP, she had also been elected President of the 1997 Co-operative Congress. She was welcomed to the movement by the 2000 Congress President, Pat Wheatley, who described her as "someone of great wisdom, true co-operative principles" and "a shining example of 'courage under fire'" for her work with the PES. Within two weeks of starting work at the Union, Green sat down with other high-profile members of the co-operative movement and drafted a letter to Tony Blair. The letter – signed by Green, Lord Graham of Edmonton, Graham Melmoth, and Len Fyfe – called on the Prime Minister to sponsor a commission to review the co-operative movement and determine its future development and modernisation. The letter arrived against a background of the impending merger of the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) and Co-operative Retail Services to create the Co-operative Group, as well as recent efforts by entrepreneur Andrew Regan to demutualise the CWS. Blair responded favourably to the request, and pledged his support in setting up a Co-operative Commission. The commission was officially launched under chair John Monks on 24 February 2000, with Green being invited to serve as one of the 12 commissioners. There was a whispering campaign amongst Labour MPs that the commission was intended to look at the party's funding relationship with the co-operative movement, which Green dismissed as "nonsense." The commission's final report was published in January 2001, leaving Green to begin the work of co-ordinating the Union's response. The Union began a "deliberate attempt to secure and celebrate [the] co-operative advantage" by increasing its ties with other organisations across the co-operative movement: they began providing professional and admin services for the United Kingdom Co-operative Council (UKCC) and ICOM, and working with co-operative support organisations across the country to establish the "first ever 'all movement' Co-ordination Movement". This work continued into 2001, with Green using her joint positions in ICOM and the Union to facilitate a merger of the two organisations, bringing together the worker and consumer co-operative sectors that had existed separately for over 100 years. The membership voted