Talk:Best Buddies International

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 1 September 2020 and 18 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Idesouza1.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 15:38, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

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)

I noticed the public policy wikiproject after I made my changes. While the knowledge wouldn't have changed my edits, I would have been a little more considerate about talking to the hardworking editor when I made the changes/deletions. Sorry to rain on someone's parade. That wasn't my intent. And you have a deadline. I don't. I converted this article originally from German, of all things, (a long time ago) and so do have a vested interest in it. Having said that, it has not evolved as well as I would have hoped. A good place to start, on one hand, on the other, I can't suggest improvements, not being familiar with the organization. Student7 (talk) 21:40, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Well written article. It is precise, goes straight to the point. I believe a section on Georgetown University is needed not only because this article is part of wikiproject, but also because, Best Buddies started at Georgetown University. Also, a better explanation best buddies programs can help the reader understand more about this organization. (i.e how are the IDD and people matched...) Rc379

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 —Preceding undated comment added 17:30, 4 November 2010 (UTC).

Dear All, Thank you for all the time you have spent commenting on my edits to the Best Buddies International (BBI) page and essentially helping me along my Wiki journey. As I recently became a member of the Wiki community, my editing skills and general knowledge of Wiki editing are still very basic. I guess I was under the impression that as BB was started at Georgetown University by a Georgetown student, the section merited its own place on the BBI page. In response to Mike Christie, my original idea was to start a new page just for the Georgetown Chapter of BB, but that got removed instantly with the feedback that I needed to edit the BBI page rather than create a new one specifically for the Georgetown Chapter. After having done some more research, I have decided to write about the various BB fundraising events over the past few years at the different BB chapters around the world. Each event will only be about a sentence or two, but I believe that will fix the issue of neutrality in terms of giving each chapter equal mentioning in the BBI page. If I did this, would I then be able to put back the larger section about the Georgetown Chapter (after some editing/ shortening)? Thanks again for your help, User:Georgetowntolondon (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 15:54, 8 November 2010 (UTC).

I think there is a mis-impression here that an educated person can jump into an article and make profound edits that haven't been thought of before or people haven't already discussed the policy for. My first articles converted stuff from the Catholic Encyclopedia to Wikpedia. I tried to rm Catholic point-of-view. I translated this article from German. I had no idea what I was doing though I had used Wikipedia for quite a few years. I've had a lot of education and years of work experience, which included writing.

I'm not at all sure that a summary of fund raising by club would be permanently useful. This is not done for other groups. This is not about making BB "look good" but to report high level information about BB. It is not a blog or a promotional website. Material that would be quite acceptable, even desirable in a .com site, are not welcome here. It is an encyclopedia. Would you pick up an Encyclopedia Britannica and expect to read, in an article on Kiwanis International, what the Kiwanis Club of Bethesda had raised last year? I wish I could be more helpful here. I don't know what is missing. But maybe nothing is missing, and that is a problem for you, unfortunately. Your professor has made it your problem, which may be unfair.

We are not trying to amuse our readers nor plant ideas in their head about imaginative fund raising ideas, nor impress them how bright some fund raisers are. It is all very very dry. No adjectives. Journalism majors go elsewhere please.

Total money raised maybe, but it has to have a reliable footnote. See WP:RELY. You can't add up the groups yourself. That would be WP:OR. What proportion of the money raised is spent on administration maybe.

Try looking at Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Reading Partners (I'm not too wild about listing all clubs), Law Students in Action Project, Admission Possible. None of these are "good" articles, unfortunately. I was just attempting to demonstrate what other organizations of similar size looked like. Not much different, IMO. Sorry I could not be of more help. Student7 (talk) 23:55, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Student7(talk) I think your comments about an educated person jumping into an article and making profound edits are quite inappropriate. As I stated in my comment above yours (which included nothing about my own education) I am new to the wikipedia community, and therefore am not very familiar with what is/ is not appropriate to write on a wikipedia page. I think that your point about translating this article from German has nothing to do with my situation as I am attempting to expand an article rather than simply translate it word for word form another language. As you have suggested, I have done some more extensive research on the international efforts made by BB, something I believe to be "high level information about BB". I would also like to note that the majority of the sources used for the extensive edits by Editing User: Johnarroyo are all .com websites, and in fact simply from the Best Buddies and Audi websites, something you said "are not welcome here" when I attempted myself to use those websites as references and sources. Thanks for your comments. User:Georgetowntolondon (talk) 19:26, 26 November 2010

I'd like to help resolve the issues here. Could we start by taking some of the disputed material and examining it to see how it can be improved, or sourced better, or, if necessary, removed? A recent edit by a non-logged in user was reverted -- was that by you, Georgetowntolondon? The editor who reverted it did so without comment, but I suspect it was because it was unsourced and appeared not to be notable information. Mike Christie (talk) 02:59, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

I've tried to convert some of this stuff to encyclopedia format from WP:SPAM. Got tired. Will be back in a few days. Try to removed gigantic repetition of the title. The entire article is about "Best Buddies". Unnecessary repetition of this will drive a reader nuts. They will not go beyond a few lines!

Has anybody read any of this stuff, considered introductory to editing? The five pillars of Wikipedia and Manual of Style? It might be useful. Student7 (talk) 21:44, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Jibberish

What on earth does this mean?...

Best Buddies International is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization which has established a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one contact, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Can anyone who understands it put it into English?

86.75.158.138 (talk) 17:45, 22 January 2011 (UTC)les woodland86.75.158.138 (talk) 17:45, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

I tried to straighten it out. Student7 (talk) 20:36, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Neutrality

Is this an encyclopedia article or a sales brochure for the charity?

I don't think an encyclopedia would have donation categories. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.175.109.15 (talk) 17:26, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

Please be specific. I agree that there is too much fluff in here. Can't figure out how to remove it without removing what the organization actually does. Student7 (talk) 20:54, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

External links modified

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Need help, does this link support a statement on the wiki page

https://www.bestbuddies.org/mari/events/

This would help provide a citation for the section under high school programs. It says it needs a citation for "This program tries to break social barriers at a difficult time in a teenager’s life, with or without a disability. Members spend time together during lunch break, before or after school. There are special events created in which allows the students to be creative, share and contribute with one another."

Idesouza1 (talk) 19:25, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

Read aloud with audio

Read article using audio so accessible listen to a voice with audio. Should add read article audio or not? 149.7.35.210 (talk) 04:32, 16 July 2022 (UTC)