Full Name: John (Ian) Miller
Length of Society Membership: 36 years
Length of Service on the Board: 3 years
I have served on the East Regional Committee since 2003 and was honoured to be elected to Board of Directors 3 years ago. I have a wide experience within Co-operative Movement over many years having served as Branch Manager in Scotmid Department Store Penicuik for 15 years.
I am Director of Co-operative Education Trust Scotland and was a Director of Co-operative Mutuality Scotland. I represent the Society on the Executive Committee of the Scottish Co-operative Party and am Secretary of Midlothian Co-operative Party. I was the Labour and Co-operative Candidate in the last Westminster 2010 election and a Candidate in Scottish Parliament 2011 election. I represent the Co-operative Party on the Scottish Labour Party Executive Committee and Scotland on Labour Party National Policy Forum. I also represent the Society on National Executive Committee of Co-operative Party.
I am also a Founding Member of Fairtrade Midlothian and after 10 years of hard work involving Schools, Churches and Retailers especially Scotmid, Midlothian gained Fairtrade Status Zone. We are now working on towns within the County to become Fairtrade Towns. Bonnyrigg and Lasswade have allready achieved this and hopefully the rest will follow.
I represented Midlothian Council on Prison Visiting Committee for an 8 year period helping offenders who were having problems within our penal system and this gave me a insight as to how offenders are treated and gave me great satisfaction in being able to help all strands of people in our society.