Community Action
The Action page is here to help you—and your neighbors, family, and friends—take a stand and speak out with clarity, courage, and purpose. Over the years, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard someone say, “Do you have a boilerplate letter?” or “Can you help me write a speech?” The truth is, the most powerful and effective letter, speech, or FOIA request is one that comes from your own heart—open, honest, and grounded in your lived experience. Still, I know how hard it can be to get started. That’s why this page exists: not to write your words for you, but to offer you a foundation—a guide, a few tools, a nudge in the right direction—so you can capture what matters most and deliver it with confidence.
Groups In Your Community
This is not an all inclusive map. If you would like your group added to this map, please email info@dgpcoop.com.
Become Part Of The Don't Get Played Cooperative
Why become a member of the Don’t Get Played Cooperative? Well, for starters, it’s free—which means you can join without spending a dime, a bushel, or even a chicken. More importantly, it’s built by rural folks for rural folks—because let’s face it, if we don’t look out for our land, nobody else will. Joining the Cooperative means you’re no longer the only one asking, “Wait… what’s in that lease fine print?” or “Why is that guy in a suit suddenly real interested in our cornfield?” You’ll get real resources, straight talk, and a whole community that’s just as stubborn, smart, and fed-up as you are. So pull up a chair, grab a cup of strong coffee, and join the movement where common sense still matters and being a little skeptical is a badge of honor.
“Cooperative,” But Not That Kind of Cooperative
Out of an abundance of caution — and because we know someone, somewhere, will eventually ask — we offer the following clarification about what the Don’t Get Played Cooperative is (and isn’t):
Despite the name, The Don’t Get Played Cooperative is not — we repeat, not — a legally incorporated cooperative or business entity under the laws of the United States or any of its fine, bureaucracy-loving states. We use the word “Cooperative” in the classic, lowercase-c, let’s-band-together-and-make-some-noise sense — not the official, IRS-filing, dividend-distributing, registered-with-the-state kind.
In other words, this is a collaborative network of real people, not a credit union, utility provider, or ag co-op with board meetings and bylaws (yet). It’s an informal coalition made up of folks who care about public engagement, radical imagination, storytelling, organizing, and — most importantly — not getting played.
To be as legally transparent about this organization:
We’re a grassroots, non-commercial initiative;
We are not organized under any state’s cooperative statute (although we've read a few for fun);
We do not collect investments, issue patronage dividends, or sell you organic oats from a commune in Vermont;
The use of “Cooperative” is purely descriptive, metaphorical, and arguably poetic.
Should this scrappy experiment evolve into a full-blown, paper-filing, tax-paying, legally recognized entity someday, we’ll let the world know.
Until then, we’re just a group of people working together under a name that sounds good and says what we mean.
Any questions, comments, or pedantic legal challenges can be directed to: info@dgpcoop.com.
We’ll read them — maybe even out loud at a meeting.