The purpose of this paper is to examine cooperative and regional educational service agencies from the viewpoint of the consumer, explaining what users of cooperative and regional services may be seeking now and in the future. Since sufficient school finances will continue to be a problem, educational managers will look to cooperatives for greater efficiency. Rural school districts will likely resist the loss of local control and will cooperate with other districts to avoid consolidation. School districts with decreased enrollments will likewise look to cooperatives to provide the same services to fewer students. However, cooperative and regional educational services agencies must recognize the potential they possess, and must take the initiative as "brokers" of cooperative education. Subdivisions of the discussion are: awareness as a key factor; the influence of economics; cooperatives and the concept of accountability; cooperation as an alternative to bigness; cooperative agencies and declining enrollments; cooperative agencies and educational alternatives; local control and cooperative educational service agencies; and the cooperative educational service agencies and their place in rural education. The key to successful cooperative education is "getting the story told". (KM)