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6 ARNOLD ROAD, COVENTRY, RHODE ISLAND 02816

Markey
Angler's Profiles

by
Hugh Markey

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This is a series of continuing articles introducing RISAA members to the rest of the club.
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This month's profile features
ROBERT MASSE

Note: Bob Masse was elected as RISAA's first Sargeant-At-Arms at the April 29th meeting. He will serve on the Board of Directors.

Masse In recent years, much attention has been paid to the importance of volunteerism. In an increasing number of school districts, as well as religious communities, youngsters are required to devote a particular amount of hours to serving their community in order to graduate. Politicians also have jumped on the bandwagon, with everyone from the Governor to the President encouraging young and old alike to give of their time for the benefit of others. Without people freely offering their help, many nonprofit organizations, including RISAA, would not exist. One person who clearly has responded to the call is RISAA member Bob Masse.

Bob has been a member of RISAA for three years. On a recent afternoon, we sat in the busy kitchen of Bob’s Warwick home and talked about the many hours he devotes to serving his community and RISAA. It didn’t take long to understand why a working father of two boys spends so much of his time doing volunteer work: the level of personal satisfaction it gives him, and his devotion to helping young people.

“I like to participate,” Masse says. “There are lots of things to be done (in RISAA), and someone’s gotta do it.” That’s an understatement for Masse. His list of committee work reads like a framework of the organization. Bob’s worked with the committees responsible for Entertainment, the Boat Show, the Newsletter, Merchandise, and Take-A-Kid Fishing Day. Odds are, if the call goes out for volunteers to pitch in at any given moment, Bob will be there.

“I first got started with RISAA by coming to the seminars,” Masse said. “ I really enjoyed them, so I began to volunteer. Stuff like the Boat Show Committee is short term, you know? Then the Entertainment Committee was looking for people. It looked like they were having a ball with it, and it was short term, too, so I signed up. The Tournament Committee is pretty much the same way. Once the rules are set, it almost runs itself.”

“It’s not that I’m in 20 thousand places at the same time,” he says of his seemingly packed schedule. “It’s just that they (committee members) always have to round up people to help out. I thought they could use a new face.”

TWO CHIPS OFF THE OLD BLOCK
Bob’s there-when-you-need-me attitude seems to have transferred to his two sons as well. Fourteen-year-old Shawn and twelve-year-old William, both honors students at Gorton Junior High School, are regularly seen pitching in at RISAA committee meetings, as well as attending the monthly general meetings. Each has acquired an impressive number of awards for participation in committees and RISAA fishing events.

Shawn captured a first place two years in a row in the Junior Member Yearlong Tournament, as well as having placed in many other fishing events. He’s most proud, though, of the handsome trophy given to him as 2001 Junior Member of the Year at the Awards Banquet four months ago. Proud father Bob pointed out that the award came for Shawn’s helping out with many committees and for attending every meeting.

Younger son William is following in his big brother’s footsteps with an impressive array of awards of his own. William volunteers his time on the Newsletter committee and other activities that need his help.

SCOUTING VOLUNTEER
While committee participation give Masse a sense of accomplishment, his enthusiasm for pitching in extends beyond the RISAA organization. Why else would he call cleaning 3600 pounds of fish in a week “fun”?

Far from some masochistic test of manhood, the cleaning frenzy came as a part of Bob’s work with the annual Boy Scouts Jamboree. “ I got a lot of experience cleaning catfish that week,” Masse laughed. “It was really a ball meeting kids from so many parts of the country. There were 35,000 kids there for a week. The people were all just unbelievable.” Bob’s face lights up as he warms to the memory. “You get something special when you work with kids. It’s really something when an inner city kid hooks into a fish.”

His work with Scouting stretches across seven years, working three years as an assistant Cub Master, and in his current position as assistant Scout Master, which he has held for four years. Needless to say, Bob’s interest in helping newcomers get involved with fishing extends to RISAA’s Take-A-Kid Fishing Day as well. “It’s good to see them get exposed to the sport. Maybe it will keep them off the street.”

With his obvious devotion to family and to kids in general, Bob Masse’s involvement in RISAA seemed a natural. Masse found RISAA to be much more “family oriented than some of the other ‘guy’ clubs around,” he said. “They try to do things for wives, kids. My wife Trudy really enjoyed the Awards dinner, as well as the Viking Queen cruise. She feels very comfortable being with the people from RISAA.

I’ve also been able to fish with lots of guys I met through RISAA. Being involved has gotten me a lot of new fishing buddies.” And for RISAA, Bob Masse’s involvement has gotten us a lot of extra help!


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