Electric Co-op Today

This isn’t Twister, but then again, Brian Van Slyke isn’t Milton Bradley.

Players enjoy Co-opoly during a New York tryout. (Photo By: Molly McLeod/mollymcleod.com)

“I’m very passionate about cooperatives,” Van Slyke declared—so much so that he’s developed a new board game appropriately called Co-opoly. The goal is to educate people about co-ops.

“Co-opoly actually isn’t anything like Monopoly,” said Van Slyke, who has been active in the co-op movement for several years. “People think, ‘Oh, do I buy co-op spaces?’ But it’s a completely different concept.”

Speaking to ECT.coop from his base in Northampton, Mass., Van Slyke described Co-opoly as “a game of skill and solidarity” in which “everyone wins or everyone loses, together.”

“You are going around the board and you are playing as one cooperative, but also as members of the cooperative,” he said.

“You win the game by jump-starting the cooperative economy in your community. If your cooperative successfully helps start other cooperatives, then you win the game. So you have to not only be a successful cooperative, but be dedicated to the cooperative movement.”

Of course, you can also be on the other end.

“If a single member of the cooperative goes bankrupt, everyone loses,” Van Slyke said. “If the co-op goes bankrupt, everyone loses.”

Various types of cards keep the game moving. World cards can have a positive or negative effect, including a storm hitting the co-op. Resource cards allow the co-op to buy things such as insurance or new equipment. Challenge cards pose what Van Slyke called “really big hurdles or really big opportunities that everyone has to democratically decide what they’re going to do about.”

Van Slyke’s involvement with co-ops began in 2005, when he started a record label that evolved into a worker co-op. He also went back to school to study education and “merged my interests in cooperatives and education” to develop co-op curricula.

Van Slyke went on to found The Toolbox for Education and Social Action, a cooperative that develops educational resources. It was there that his ideas for teaching people about co-ops evolved into Co-opoly. He has been testing the games at various locales, including a recent National Cooperative Business Association meeting.

The game’s initial version revolves around a worker co-op. Extension packs will follow, allowing people to use the same board while playing as different co-ops, including rural electric cooperatives.

Even manufacturing is a cooperative effort.

“We’re working with other cooperatives to produce the game,” Van Slyke said. But since there’s no co-op board game manufacturer, different co-ops handle different segments. One phrase you won’t see is “Made in China.”

“We’re not sending it overseas,” Van Slyke said.

The game will go on sale in late November on the Co-opoly website, and discussions are underway to get the game sold in co-op stores.

Tags: Co-op News