Get to Know Your Executive Committee and Staff

Yeah yeah, we’re recycling this content from the May Pine Press. We want newbies to get to know us too!!

Marty Sloan first became involved with the Spartan Housing Cooperative when he moved into Bower House the summer of 2014. He was the membership officer for Bower House for 2 years before moving into Beal House the fall of 2017. He served as the Corporate Secretary from fall 2017 until becoming President of the SHC in spring 2018. After finishing his term and graduating from MSU with a BS in Computational Mathematics and a BA in Spanish, he moved to Spain to teach ESL for 2 years. He now serves as the temporary Member Services Coordinator of the SHC while still teaching ESL on the side. As Member Services Coordinator, he manages accounts receivable, supports the Membership and Education Committees with their goals, handles member communications and office administration, facilitates and coordinates trainings, manages and oversees all member contracts, and assists in conflict management. He enjoys cooking, eating, playing World of Warcraft, and drinking beer on porches.

Hey! I’m Emily Tyler, your Vice President of Education as well as your Executive Vice President (the latter means I’d take over as prez in the case of Erik’s inability to do it). This is my second term in both of these positions, and I’m thrilled to have another go around it. I have lived at Vesta since August 2018, but I originally started in the co-op at Toad Lane in December 2017. Some of my favorite things include coffee, writing in my journal, reading, writing letters, and spending time with my friends. I have a bachelor’s degree in English from MSU ’19, and I’ ve been around East Lansing since fall 2015.

Leah Rogers is the SHC’s Corporate Treasurer for the 21/22 Executive Committee. She graduated in Spring of 2020 with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Michigan State University. Most weekends and weeknights she can be found making good use of her degree behind the bar at Hopcat. Leah lives in Vesta Cooperative with her moose Pillow Pet and extensive CD collection.

Hey SHC! I’m Erik Berg, resident co-op historian and SHC President. I discovered the co-ops completely by accident in 2016, toured Orion in 2017, immediately fell in love with the house, and moved in in 2018. At the start of 2019 I became Orion’s Board Rep. and House President, and found myself in a multitude of other roles in the process. That continued up through spring of 2020, when I became SHC President. Now it’s 2021, and I constantly wonder, “How the hell did I end up here?”

Reflecting on my personal timeline over the past year is a trip, but it’s nothing compared to the events we’ ve collectively experienced over the past year. I became President just as the first COVID-19 cases were cropping up in Michigan, and served throughout the entirety of the pandemic in the US. To call it difficult would be an understatement. We’ ve come a long way in just one year, but we still have a long way to go. 2021 marks the 50th year in the story of SHC, and it’s a story of hardship after hardship. The miracle to our survival is simple cooperation. When we work together, the things we’re able to overcome are nothing short of incredible. This past year — and the past 50 years — are a testament to this truth. As our houses open up and our co-op community is able to flourish once again, I’m happy and honored to continue this legacy as a member-owner and as President for the upcoming year.

My name is Zach Crewes and I graduated from MSU with degrees in Political Science and Statistics. I've worked construction and as a private contractor for the past few years and am very excited to be Vice President of Facilities for the SHC. I am very into politics (I'm an Anarcho-Syndicalist), I love camping and backpacking, and I am a somewhat active disc golfer. My favorite animals are snakes and any time I'm in woods or fields I'm scanning the ground for a legless friend. I pretty much always have either the TV on or music/podcasts playing because my brain can not function without constant stimulation. I am super into history and could talk for hours with anyone willing to listen to me ramble about dialectical materialism. I just recently moved into the coops in late October, but I have already found myself to be incredibly enthralled by the cooperative movement. I hope to be able to ensure that the SHC will be able to have safe and sturdy places for members to live and grow, and I would very much enjoy teaching anyone about house maintenance or just talking about politics, history or the state of the SHC! I am very much looking forward to this upcoming term.

Executive Director: I’m holly jo Sparks and I’m extremely good at one thing: Cooperatives. Seven years ago, I was the winning tribute in a Hunger Games style hiring process for the SHC, and have been a non-voting member of the Executive Committee and cooperative chief of staff and advisor to SHC’s Co-op President(s) ever since. I moved into Sojourner Truth co-op in Ann Arbor in 1993 and my life has never been the same. Since then I’ ve lived in eight other housing co-ops in five different cities, and have helped start or “ save” dozens more. These days, I’m a part of Genesee Gardens Co-housing Community in Lansing, where I live with my almost-two-year-old rockstar kiddo, Celyn Weaver. I’m a lifelong learner and co-op board junkie: I’m board president for Oryana Community Co-op (in Traverse City) and Campus Cooperative Development Corporation (CCDC); I also serve on the Shared Capital Co-op Board. I received a BA in History of Art from University of Michigan in 1997; and have since studied nonprofit finance, law, housing, economic development, and city planning at UC Santa Barbara, MIT and UNC Chapel Hill. Other than nerding out about co-ops, I enjoy vegetarian dinner parties, wine Wednesdays, Feng shui, cardigans, Woody Guthrie, audiobooks, and lately, a lot of NYTimes & Cocomelon. I’m a proud member of Team Tea, not to be confused with the Tea Party or Team Coffee (although I don’t mind associating with the latter !! <3 ) Being a part of the Spartan Housing Cooperative and working with its Executive Leadership motivates and inspires me — not only because of how far we’ ve come in the past 7 years, but how much more we have yet to accomplish in the years to come!:

Howdy! I'm Claire Hibbard (she/her/hers) and I'm your Vice President of Membership. Here's a bit about me... Haus: Orion since '19 Current Anthem: Se a Cabo by Santana Passions:

- Hiking, Camping, Skiing... being outdoors! Come find me on Orion's porch ^ _ ^