You are on page 1of 7

Kennedy 1

McKenzie Kennedy
ENC 2135
Ms. Brandi Bradley
1 September 2015
Life is Best with a Buddy-Draft 1
Life is continually moving. There are billons of people in this world surrounding each
individual person and each person is then surrounded by a multitude of communities that interest
them. Each community typically has a plethora of sub-communities that help build their
following. Communities all vary in the way they communicate amongst their members and with
people outside of their communities.
Genre is a broad term that is commonly used in reference to movies, books, or music.
However, the term itself can be related to a multitude of other things as well. Genre is simply
defined as a category of writing or of communication (Brazeiller and Kleinfeld 5). Genres can
come in all shapes and sizes and there are typically many genres assigned to one particular
community.
A way that Best Buddies International has attempted to bring members together is
through the annual leadership conference that is held in Indiana. This conference caters to the
leaders of each club internationally and allows members to connect and share ideas with one
another through a face-to-face interaction. The face-to-face genre is rare in twenty-first century
society due to the technological epidemic that has taken the world by storm. Best Buddies
International also has a large social media following that allows them to be able to send out
announcements in mass quantities. Due to its large audience, Best Buddies International is
limited in their ways of communication. They are able to send emails and tweets throughout the

Kennedy 2
year to keep people informed but face to face interactions are only available to a small subset of
members only once a year. This face-to-face interaction is extremely beneficial and successful in
getting the job done. The conference yields not only accomplished paperwork but more
importantly it produces passion. Face-to-face interaction allows relationships to be created and
built; this kind of interaction is not available through other genres such as twitter and email.
Emotional connections are lost somewhere in cyberspace whereas at this conference, people gain
confidence in their abilities and are taught what it means to be a leader, then and only then are
they sent out to do the work they wish to do.
Since it is an international program, the organization is widespread and often faces
challenges when communicating with this vast amount of people. Best Buddies International
attempts to mitigate this problem using a variety of genres to send announcements and
information out to its members. Genre is simply defined as a category of writing or of
communication (Brazeiller and Kleinfield 5). The most prominent genre that Best Buddies
International utilizes is social media. This caters to the fact that most members of the
organization are a part of the technological generation. There are Twitter, Instagram, and multiple
Facebook pages all solely devoted to Best Buddies. Social media is an integral part of the
International level of the organization. It is one of the only modes of communication that can
reach thousands of people with the click of a button. Each social media outlet has its positives
and negatives which affects the way Best Buddies employs them. Twitter is extremely helpful in
blasting out short announcements and reminders but is not the best method when attempting to
send more detailed updates due to the one-hundred forty-character limit. Instagram is extremely
useful in sharing personal stories and highlighting some of the friendships within the
organization. Passion can be explained through words but pictures convey emotions that cannot

Kennedy 3
always fully be captured within a character limit. Laughter, smiles, and excitement for this
organization and its mission are better conveyed in pictures on Instagram than in a quick tweet.
Facebook is also a helpful mode of communication within the organization. Announcements and
updates can be organized into pages and groups on Facebook where members can receive
information specific to their sector of Best Buddies. This is more efficient than members
attempting to sift through the massive amount of updates that get blasted out every day.
Another mode of communication that is used by Best Buddies International is email. The
majority of the technological generation have an email account that they check regularly. This
genre is one of the earliest forms of internet communication and while some say it is diminishing
due to the increased following of social media, others believe that it will remain prevalent for
some time. Especially in situations like this where it may be the only means of communication
common to every member of a community. Email is also a better form of communication when
staying in touch with the older population of a community as they sometimes do not participate
in the social media movement that has taken the world by storm. In Best Buddies the older
population consists of the parents of both the buddies and the peer buddies. Most middle school,
high school and college students still rely heavily on their parents for transportation and financial
support, so parents must be kept in the loop. Important information is sent from Anthony
Kennedy Shriver, the founder of Best Buddies, through email to members and their parents. He
regularly sends out reminders of campaigns, activities, and holidays that members of the
organization have the opportunity to partake in. This mode of communication is extremely
effective as it caters to the parents whose moral and financial support is vital to the
organizations survival.

Kennedy 4
Each particular region in every state or country has a head office with staff assigned to
that area, these offices are another branch of the Best Buddies community. These staff members
are able to communicate via texts, tweets, and emails as well because the group is still quite
large. However, due to the number of people, staff members meet with each leader of the clubs
individually once a semester in order to get face-to-face communication in order to receive
updates and give announcements and feedback. Typically, these meetings are more for the
logistical parts of the job versus trying to create a personal relationship. This is when they talk
specific financials or problems with the leaders and help to craft unique, feasible solutions to
each situation These meetings tend to be relaxed yet professional as the audience is a staff
member and a leader of the club versus just a typical member. This particular audience changes
the words that can be used as leaders have been trained to understand the language that the
average member never really acquires due to lack of necessity.
The next subset of Best Buddies is the individual chapter at each school. Individual
chapters are able to communicate through various forms of multi-media. These forms include
flyers around school to inform other students, whether they are members or not, of a particular
campaign or event that is occurring that week or month. Another way they communicate is via
social media because in todays world the convenience that a tweet or post brings is undeniable.
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc are all forms of social media that Best Buddies utilizes. They
have individual Facebook pages for each sect of the organization for example the executive
board had a separate one from the club itself. Social media is such a prominent form of
communication that in many organizations including Best Buddies has an executive board
position solely for that job. Social informs the vast majority of a community in one blast versus
the genre of group texting or texting in general making a vital method of communication.

Kennedy 5
Texting everyone individually seems virtually impossible though some brave souls have
attempted and while group messages seem to be a solution they cause other problems later down
the line. Such problems that can arise from group messages are miscommunication, information
bombardment, and frustration with people in the message if they are sending frivolous
information.
Flyers and announcements around school are just one way that leaders recruit new
members to the organization. The face-to-face genre is also a prominent way of recruiting new
members. At the beginning of every year, leaders set up an information table with a sign up sheet
in the cafeteria during the first week of school or during open house in order to introduce people
to the organization. The face-to-face genre is extremely helpful in recruiting as ones passion for
the organization is exuded through their facial expression and pure joy when recounting stories
of their involvement in the program.
Another subset of the Best Buddies chapter is the executive board. The executive board
contains several positions such as President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. These
individuals are an even smaller group that due to their size have different methods in which
communication works. For a group this size it is easier to communicate via texting and emails
and not social media due to the confidential and time-sensitive information that is shared at
meetings and in texts and emails. Most communication took place in the form of group
messaging as with only a few people this genre is most efficient. Most teenagers have their
phones with them almost at all time so this was a sure fire way to communicate and know that
everyone received the information accordingly.
The smallest subset in a Best Buddies chapter is the one-to-one friendship that is formed
between two students, one with IDD (the buddy) and one without (the peer buddy). This

Kennedy 6
community must be altered for each individual friendship as some buddies are unable to
communicate in ways that society would deem normal. For example, some buddies are unable
to verbally communicate and have to use an iPad to type or click images to convey what they are
attempting to say. These friendships may look different because they communicate through
technology but that does not make their friendship any less valuable.
There are other buddies who can neither use the iPad nor verbally communicate. Texting
and phone calls are great ways for friends to communicate but it is very difficult to base an entire
relationship off of this. For example, there were a few buddy pairs where the peer buddies were
heavily involved in sports and therefore had very little time to commit to their buddy. This
hindered their friendship from ever blossoming and caused them to struggle to maintain their
relationship throughout the year and especially during the summer. This is a similar situation to
long distance relationships or friendships, people complain they are hard because deeper
personal connections are created during in person interactions. Most of the time the interactions
are face to face at group events, in the hallways between classes, or at individual events. Texting
and phone calls are also a big mode of communication as sometimes one is not always accessible
for an in person meeting. Buddy pairs who met the two monthly face-to-face meetings appeared
to have stronger friendships and an almost inseparable bond.

Kennedy 7
Works Cited Page
Anderson, Daniel. Write Now. Boston: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2012. Print.
Braziller, Amy, and Kleinfeld, Elizabeth. The Bedford Book of Genres: a guide and reader.
Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. Print.
Best Buddies International. Best Buddies International. 2015. Web. 19 September 2015.
Spread the Word to End the Word. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation and Special Olympics.
2015.Web.19 September 2015

You might also like