The Berkeley Student Cooperative held elections for its summer and fall executive offices positions on their Board of Directors last week.

John Henry, a fifth-year student, was elected president for both the summer and fall terms. Henry, who has been living in the co-op system since the summer of 2004, previously served on the BSC board of directors as a Rochdale Apartments representative.

Henry said he plans to use the summer term to help prepare for the fall when more residents move into the co-ops.

"One of my main goals (for the summer) is to be more noticed. ... I want to make myself a resource available to the other co-ops," he said.

Xiao Xiao, a fifth-year doctoral student who has lived in the co-op system since he was an undergraduate, was elected vice president of safety and maintenance. He has previously been both kitchen manager and food manager for Cloyne Court.

Xiao said he hopes to reshape some of the central kitchen infrastructure and to improve both transparency and communication between co-op members and the central maintenance and kitchen staffs.

Katie Bones, a sophomore who lives in Ridge House, was elected vice president of member affairs.

Bones said she hopes to use her co-op experience for the position, which includes working as a health worker at Cloyne Court as well as both the association's health education coordinator and emergency services coordinator.

"I would like to use those (programs) as a model to get people involved in the larger organization of the co-ops," she said.

Alex Lemberg, a sophomore who has lived in both Casa Zimbabwe and Cloyne Court, was elected summer vice president.

Lemberg, who ran for ASUC Senate under the Cooperative Movement party, said he saw this as another way to become involved in the co-op system.

"If I could help as much as I could, it would be a good thing," he said.

Rounding out the board are Jesse Germinario, who won the vice president of internal affairs position, Vistara Voss, who was elected vice president of external affairs, Ramon Martinez, who won the race for vice president of financial affairs, Kat Koury, who won as special events coordinator and Palmer Buchholz, who won as member advocate for both the summer and fall terms.

Many races, including most of the vice presidential contests as well as the contest for the presidency, ran uncontested.

The election winners said they are pleased to take on leadership roles in the association and are satisfied with the organization's current state.

"The organization is doing fairly well at this point in that we don't have any glaring issues right now," Henry said. "But I do think we're in a good position."

Tags: USCA