Raised in The Soundview Class-Point projects, in was is now considered the south Bronx, Dr. Ansley W. LaMar has been associated with New Jersey City University for over 40 years. He is a professor of psychology. Dr. LaMar has also served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Director of the Educational Opportunity Fund Program, and the Chairman of the Psychology Department. “Dedicated to the belief that all people are gifted and talented,” Dr. LaMar founded LaMar Educational Enterprises, LLC. and SuperKidz Kamp, Inc. a 7-day, fun-filled, residential camping experience that uses challenging activities, cooperative games, and opportunities for reflection to develop the leadership capabilities of 11 to17 year olds. He is a proud Toastmaster and shares how much he has positively impacted his fellow Toastmasters.
- What inspired you to join Toastmasters? How did Toastmasters benefit you?
I originally joined Toastmasters because I wanted to become a motivational speaker. I had a vision of giving inspiring speeches, which changed the lives of college students throughout the metropolitan area.
I benefited from Toastmasters in a number of ways. First, going through each of the advanced manuals increased my flexibility and breadth as a speaker. Second, every time I gave a speech in my club, I learned something that I could use to increase the quality of my presentation. And finally, and most importantly, I developed friendships that I value.
- You served as VPE for Gateway 2. How did you get your members to participate in Area Contests?
As the Vice President, President of Education, I would assign roles to the members and publish a monthly schedule. To my pleasant surprise, most Gateway 2 club members were willing to fulfill the roles that they were assigned. It easier and more effective to let people opt out than to invite them opt in. I used a different strategy to get members to participate in Area Contests. In that case, I would “recruit” seasoned speakers to participate in the club contest 6 to 8 weeks before the contest. Maybe I was lucky, but most people I recruited agreed. I think approaching the right people in plenty of time made the difference.
- You designed a mentoring program that is doing really well today. Please share your strategy for effective mentoring.
In my experience, mentoring programs fail because they are not structured. Mentors and mentees don’t schedule a set time to meet. The mentor is not aware of the goals of the mentee. And, there is no “syllabus.” That is, the mentor is not sure what should be covered.
At Gateway 2, our mentoring program might look a little different from the mentoring program of other clubs. First, we assign one seasoned member to mentor all new members. Second, we find out the mentees availability by using doodle.com, a polling website. Third, all mentees are asked to complete the Membership Survey. Fourth, all mentees are given a mentor/mentee checklist, which identifies the areas the mentor should cover. And the mentee is also given guidelines, which go into greater detail regarding the way we do it at Gateway 2 Toastmasters and Toastmasters international.
- You also designed a program to help your club attain Distinguished Club status. Please tell us more about it.
Interestingly, we were able to achieve the Distinguished Club award by making achieving the award secondary to fulfilling an aspirational vision, which was developed by soliciting input from all the members of Gateway 2 Toastmasters at a Blue Sky meeting. Toward the end of the administrative year, we did focus on meeting those final goals.
- If you had one leadership or educational challenge for yourself for 2017-2018, what would it be?
My educational challenge is grounded in the reason I first joined Toastmasters. I would like to have in my back pocket between 3 and 5, 20 to 30, minute inspirational speeches that have a high laughter per minute ratio. Perhaps I will set that as a goal for the 2017-2018 Toastmaster year.