Results in for NASCO Board Elections 2012!

We welcome these new Directors to NASCO's Board!  Thanks to those who participated in our democratic process.

 

Max Baroi

Morgan Crawford

Charlie DeTar

Arthur Smith

 

Brian Donovan

Devlin Seymour

 

Max has been deeply involved with the Berkeley Student Cooperative (BSC) ever since he became a member. He served on the BSC's Board of Directors for a year, and is currently the Vice President of Operations for the BSC.  In that role, he has taken on the projects of managerial payroll, termination appeals, and summer occupancy. 

 

Max has found a home in the cooperative movement.  He hopes to bring the experience he's had with the BSC, and to apply it to NASCO; to aid NASCO as an entity itself, but also help other co-ops through NASCO. And he hopes that through the exposure to other co-ops, the experience he gains will feed back into that mission.

 

Morgan is a recent graduate of UC Berkeley, where he earned a B.A. in Rhetoric and spent his free time immersed in disability advocacy, LGBT organizing, and co-op living. He also enjoys photography, glitter, exploring, and old-fashioned, good-natured mischief. Upon graduating, Morgan decided that change was in order and moved to Iowa in pursuit of love (as young folks are wont to do).  He now lives with his partner in a co-op of 17 Iowans, in contrast to his previous co-op of 124 lovable hooligans.

 

Over the course of the past three years, Morgan has lived in 5 NASCO co-op houses, ranging in size from 9 to 124 members. During his time in the Berkeley Student Cooperative, he served as House President, Disability Access Coordinator, Head Chef for his 124 house mates, and volunteered for many other duties. He currently serves as a member of the River City Housing Collective's Mediation Committee.

 

Morgan continues to live in co-ops because he believes that their ability to teach individuals to build a community from the ground up, while creating a space for non-normative identities and expression, makes them truly special places. As a NASCO Director, intends on extending this experience to a wider audience by empowering NASCO co-ops to become more inclusive spaces for individuals from marginalized groups.

 

He is excited to learn more about NASCO while fostering positive change through direct research of member needs, development of resources, and organization of Institute (as well as planning an anniversary, since he and his partner met at Institute).

 

Charlie has been involved in the cooperative world for the last 12 years.  He lived in Casa Zimbabwe of the Berkeley Student Cooperatives for 4 years, helped found the Barrington Collective (a community organizing and activism collective in Berkeley), and worked for Berkeley Worms composting collective.  More recently, he lived in Boston Community Cooperatives for 4.5 years, and served on the NASCO Education board as the Active Member Representative for one year.

 

Charlie believes that cooperatives are key to the future of humanity.  Cooperation is fundamentally about communication – if we can communicate and understand our needs, desires, and dreams effectively, we can help each other to achieve them, without resorting to destructive selfishness. Charlie is currently doing research as part of a PhD in media technology on ways that cooperatives and affinity groups can use online tools to communicate better.  He hopes to share the results of this work with co-ops across North America, to improve our ability to work together.

 

Board Member NASCO Development Services, Trustee Kagawa Fund and Kagawa Student Reinvestment Fund, NASCO Development appointee to NASCO Planning Committee

 

Brian has been the General Administrator for the Inter-Cooperative Council (in Austin) since September 2005. Prior to his current position, Brian worked in politics and the non-profit sector as well as spending 8 years working for Apple in Sales and Sales management. Brian led NASCO Development's effort to secure federal funding for new affordable housing for students in 2009 and has worked at the local, state, and federal level to promote environmental protection, campaign finance reform, and affordable housing. Brian's volunteer time includes work for diverse organizations in Austin: Liveable City (since 2003 -chair 2010), Austin Carshare (board treasurer 2005-9), and Theatre Action Project (chair 2002-4). Brian also served as a volunteer agent to the city of Austin for NASCO properties and Sasona Coop in securing a conditional unit permit (allowing legal operation of Sasona as a co-op).

 

Devlin Seymour graduated in 2010 with a Bachelors Degree in Business Economics with an emphasis in accounting from the University of California Santa Barbara. He currently works as an accountant for the University and is pursing his Certified Public Accountant license.

 

Devlin begin his interest in co-ops 4 years ago when he moved into the Santa Barbara Student Housing Cooperative.  Since then he has sat on the board of directors, served as treasurer for the organization, and was involved in the yearly budgeting process. He is also involved with the Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive as a financial analyst, where he helps with budgeting and accounting decisions.

 

Devlin loves the fact that he lives within walking distance of the beach and that he can consider it cold outside when its 50 degrees. He loves where he lives and part of that reason is the coop he lives in. He feels coops have an amazing ability to build community and hopes to spend the rest of his life creating and sustaining them.

 

Arthur is a professional student who loves meeting people, learning new skills, and helping others. He is currently a member of WCRI and has been involved with WCRI for more than 10 years.  Over the years, he has been the Assistant Division manager, Division Council Representative, Member Educator, Board Member ,and Block Manager for the organization. In these many roles, he has been involved in organizing community events, writing policies, hiring staff, forming committees, and engaging in strategic planning and community outreach. He has also served on the NASCO Education board since January 2009; he has been the treasurer and is currently a member of the Member Engagement Committee. Arthur believes that in these economic times, co-ops are even more critical to help out society for the better. He loves the idea of democratically controlled, socially progressive organization and is excited to work to make the co-operative movement more recognized to the general public, especially during this United Nations International Year of Cooperatives (2012).