Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Omicron Delta Kappa


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Keep (nomination withdrawn with no non-keep viewpoints). (non-admin closure) -- LWG talk 14:08, 31 January 2018 (UTC)

Omicron Delta Kappa

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This article seems to be an advertisement for Omnicron Delta Kappa. I was going to make improvements, but as I searched I have thus far found zero references to this organization anywhere online except self-published promotional material and forum discussions. Thus I'd like to have a conversation and consider:
 * WP:ORGSIG, 'No matter how "important" editors may personally believe an organization to be, it should not have a stand-alone article in Wikipedia unless reliable sources independent of the organization have discussed it.'
 * WP:INHERITORG 'An organization is not notable merely because a notable person or event was associated with it.'
 * WP:ORGIND 'A primary test of notability is whether people independent of the subject itself (or its manufacturer, creator, or vendor) have actually considered the company, corporation, product or service notable enough that they have written and published non-trivial, non-routine works that focus upon it.'

In its current state, the article does not appear to contain any information that is not available in the organization's own marketing materials. As these materials are specifically excluded by WP:ORGIND, it needs to be shown that the organization has been the subject of "non-trivial, non-routine works" by independent sources. If such sources can be found, I will gladly take on the task of bringing the article into compliance with them myself. -- LWG talk 16:10, 20 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of United States of America-related deletion discussions. Hhhhhkohhhhh (talk) 16:19, 20 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Keep notwithstanding the fact the nominator thinks there are no sources available. I say that there are almost certainly sources available for an important American honour society such as this one. I somehow doubt this article was created from thin air, and since the organisation does exist it meets the WP:V policy. In fact I can see many primary sources from a search: . It stands to reason that there are books and newspaper articles about it, and I am not convinced that searching on Google is enough effort to prove there is not. Ilyina Olya Yakovna (talk) 17:02, 20 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I agree that the lack of independent sources seems surprising given how the organization describes itself, and would love to see non-primary sources found, however, these sources need to actually be found. See WP:ENN and WP:ORGSIG. If this organization is in fact "an important American honour society", then we should be able to find someone other than the organization itself to tell us so. -- LWG talk 17:14, 20 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Keep. In spite of how long the article has been tagged, I'm reluctant to say that the sources aren't out there. I do agree that they need to be found and brought into the article, but I think improvement is the better course here than deletion. —C.Fred (talk) 17:19, 20 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Comment After filtering search results for the organization's own web site and the pages of its various chapters and affiliates, I have found only a few campus news articles that all read "so-and-so, a student/alumni of this university, was inducted into ODK this week. ODK is [copy/paste of the organization's presskit description]". These sources do not meet WP:ORGDEPTH or WP:ORGIND. Does anyone have suggestions as to another direction of search for sources? -- LWG talk 17:42, 20 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I note that even using exact parameters Google books returns 270,000 results, exact quotes on web with 163,000. Where then to start? So I filtered the search via various parameters and arrived at the conclusion we need an expert to identify something that is actually useful in the three hundred thousand articles about them and their members. But really, this is an article improvement job, not a deletion reason. Ilyina Olya Yakovna (talk) 20:47, 20 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the input: I looked through the first 10 pages of the Google books results for "Omicron Delta Kappa". The overwhelming majority of instances are just part of a list of Greek affiliations after someone's name. Those that remain seem to consist of lists of of organizations that exist at a particular university, or entirely unrelated works. I found nothing giving more than 2-3 sentences describing the organization itself. -- LWG talk 20:00, 21 January 2018 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Keep Keep per CFred. --IShadowed (talk) 02:05, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Spartaz Humbug! 08:50, 28 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Keep per WP:BASIC/WP:GNG. --IndyNotes (talk) 18:16, 28 January 2018 (UTC)
 * WP:BASIC is a notability guideline for people, not organizations. Thus far no sources have been presented that meet WP:GNG. The specific concern is the lack of nontrivial coverage of the subject in independent sources. -- LWG talk 11:26, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

"Membership in Omicron Delta Kappa is awarded to undergraduate junior and senior men, and occasionally to students of graduate and professional schools and colleges of the institution, and to faculty members and alumni. Election to membership is on the basis of character and specified eligibility as to scholarship, distinguished attainments in college and community life, and consecration to democratic ideals.
 * Snow keep. This is a widespread and well-known organization. See, e.g., William Raimond Baird, Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities (1977), p. 580:

Omicron Delta Kappa, or "ODK," as it is popularly known, functioned in a most admirable way from the very outset. At first there was no thought of immediate extension to other institutions, but it was apparent that Omicron Delta Kappa, if properly conducted, would prove beneficial to any college campus where it might be established. Almost spontaneously requests for charters were received from local groups at The Johns Hopkins University, the University of Pittsburgh and Davidson College. By 1917, there were four Circles of Omicron Delta Kappa. These groups, impressed with The ODK Idea, formed the national organization and thus began the first college honor society of national scope to accord recognition and honor for exemplary character, meritorious leadership and service in extra-curricular activities, for superior scholarship and for the encouragement of general campus citizenship. Today more than 100 Circles have been established in fully accredited institutions in the United States."


 * For full disclosure, I was actively involved in ODK from 1994 to 1996, but have not had anything to do with them since. bd2412  T 19:07, 29 January 2018 (UTC)
 * That's exactly the kind of source I was looking for and failing to find, thanks! In light of that this discussion should be closed as Speedy Keep. -- LWG talk 14:08, 31 January 2018 (UTC)