Talk:Best Buddies International

Source

Translated from the German Wikipedia with changes.Student7 01:16, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Merge

I propose this article has Volvo Best Buddies Challenge merged into it. Firstly volvo is no longer the sponser, Audi is. Secondly it is under the Best Buddies international organization so it would just make sense to merge and maybe have a redirect. SirGrant (talk) 02:17, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Sounds fine to me depending how the other article editors react. I translated this from German originally. It doesn't seem to have Volvo/Audi included but that is their problem I suppose. At worst, we could have a pretend "fork" from this article, assuming the other article editor(s) object to the merge. Student7 (talk) 12:04, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I'll merge it then later tonight. Somehow I don't think the other articles editors will mind. It doesn't look like the page had been edited in about a year. SirGrant (talk) 18:28, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Georgetown chapter emphasis

I can appreciate that an editor has spent a lot of time editing the Georgetown chapter subsection of the article. Unfortunately, the material is WP:UNDUE. The organization is not supposed to be comprised of only one club, nor do WikiPedia articles or subsections consist of the proceeding of small organizations except maybe the US Senate, College of Cardinals, Supreme Court; that sort of thing. Material must be so noteworthy that it is not only the Washington Post, but carried by the Associated Press and be of significance historically. The article Best Buddies itself barely crosses that threshold. I am sure it owes a lot to Georgetown which could be a sentence or two, but not most of the article. The emphasis must be on the International organization, not one chapter.

Right now, the article is poorly sourced, taken from material from the organization website. It would be nice if this were converted to outside references.

Subsections should not be blogs. This is an encyclopedia. It is not a social column. Other venues are available for that type of information. .com sites, for example. Student7 (talk) 14:12, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

Hi, Student7; you make some good points. I don't know if you're aware of it, but there is a US public policy Wikiproject ongoing which includes coursework being done by students at various universities. I'm one of the online ambassadors helping the students out -- explaining Wikipedia's rules and so on. This article is being worked on by one of those students; I'll take a look through the last few edits and see if can make some constructive comments here. Mike Christie (talk) 00:35, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

Personally, I think that "The Georgetown University Chapter of Best Buddies is the biggest in the Washington, D.C. area and is also the birthplace of the organization." means that chapter merits a mention in the article, though what was added could probably be shortened unless adequate references are added and the whole article is also fleshed out. /ƒETCHCOMMS/ 03:41, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

Removed material

Here is the removed material, so that we can discuss it. It constituted a section called "Georgetown University Chapter". I've changed the ref tags to parenthesized links so that they're easier to see and comment on.

The Georgetown University Chapter of Best Buddies is the biggest in the Washington, D.C. area and is also the birthplace of the organization. The mission of Georgetown University Best Buddies is to enhance the lives of people with intellectual disabilities by providing opportunities for one-to-one friendships (Ref: http://studentorgs.georgetown.edu/bestbuddies/?Action=About)

As of October 2010, the chapter has 117 members. This is comprised of 13 associate members, 62 Georgetown college buddies, and 42 community buddies. All of the Georgetown college buddies meet once a week with the community members (those with intellectual disabilities) for an event on the Georgetown campus. The events are themed, and include performances by Georgetown student groups, such as acapella and dance groups and seasonal food is also prepared and provided by the chapter. The chapter has a group of 12 board members who meet every two months to organize the events. The events are funded by the Georgetown University Centre for Social Justice (Ref: http://csj.georgetown.edu/). The students can choose to be either full-time or associate buddies. Full-time buddies are paired up with a community member with an intellectual disability. They are encouraged to let these pairing happen naturally at the first event of the school year, where all the new student Best Buddies members and new members from the local community meet for the first time. After forming this initial relationship, the Georgetown student is expected to keep in contract with their buddy by calling, texting or emailing them, but also by meeting up with them at least once a month. They buddy pairs will meet up at least once a month for fun activities such as going to the cinema, going for dinner or going to a D.C museum or attraction. Associate buddies do not have as large as a commitment as the full-time buddies. Associate buddies are expected to come to meetings and group events and are not paired with a particular buddy.

The chapter is fully student run with a faculty advisor to provide guidance and assistance. Joan Riley, an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing and Health Studies has served as the faculty advisor for the past 5 years (Ref:http://www.thehoya.com/news/riley-named-professor-year/). In November 2009, Riley was named the District of Columbia Teacher of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. (Ref:http://www.thehoya.com/news/riley-named-professor-year/)

In April 2010, the chapter organized a Best Buddies 20th Anniversary party, which took place on the University's main campus. About 200 people attended the event, including members of the Georgetown Best Buddies Chapter, members of the local community with mental and physical disabilities,Georgetown faculty and other Georgetown students. The University also invited members from the University of Maryland and American University, those chapters in the surrounding area. Various dance and music student groups performed at the event, as there was also a barbecue and multiple games. The founder of Best Buddies, and Georgetown Alumni, Anthony Kennedy Shriver, gave the key note speech at the carnival. Kirsten Stone, a former Best Buddies member and a current global messenger for the Special Olympics Virginia Chapter, also delivered a brief speech, as the the University's President, John J. DeGioia (Ref:http://www.thehoya.com/news/best-buddies-celebrates-20th-anniversary/).

In October 2010, the Georgetown university chapter won the youth trophy for raising $10,000 for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Challenge.

Comments about the removed material

The first question is whether the article with the extra material would violate the part of the neutrality policy that talks about [[WP:UNDUE|undue weight. The article is supposed to be about the whole organization and adding a piece about one chapter, even though it's the founding chapter, makes the article lopsided. That is one of the points Student7 makes above, and I agree with it.

A common option with articles that have sections that grow too large is to make them into articles of their own. Here, that would require that the Georgetown chapter satisfy the the notability guideline. The sources provided so far don't do that: they include two citations to thehoya.com, one to the Best Buddies page on studentorgs.georgetown.edu, and one to the Center for Social Justice website. I couldn't find a reference to Best Buddies International (BBI) anywhere on the last one, though I may have missed it. The others don't meet the notability standard because they're not really independent -- thehoya.com is the university paper and can be expected to cover local events and organizations of very minor notability. If an independent newspaper or magazine ran an article about the chapter that would count. Or has an journal or magazine devoted to disabled issues covered the chapter in a story? Or have there been news articles about the founding of BBI that cover the Georgetown chapter in particular?

Since the notability doesn't seem to be there for a separate article, the material would have to be in this article if it goes anywhere. I think the best way to start is to find the sources first, and see what can be added from them. I had a quick look online for sources but didn't find a whole lot of reliable material -- mostly what I found was directories, mentions in lists, and press releases. I think it will be hard to add a lot of detail to this article about a specific chapter, but there might be sources out there which could help with the overall organization rather than one specific chapter. Mike Christie (talk) 01:45, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm working with the student to improve the sourcing for the material and work on the overall subject of Best Buddies International. She might be expanding the page to include more about other chapters and she'll look through Lexis-Nexis to find national and international coverage of BBI and its events. Thanks for your advice. ~Professor Davis User:radavis147