Board of directors

The Board of Directors of the Tall Clubs International Foundation, Inc. is composed of volunteer directors who have served Tall Clubs International™ in a variety of leadership positions. They represent a cross section of TCI™ membership in the United States and Canada.
The Board thanks Megan Lukens for her artistic contribution to this website.  The year shown is when that member joined the Board or assumed the position.

Marie Austin (Chair, 2020)  Marie has been a member of the Boston Beanstalks Tall Club since 1986. She has held several offices within the local club including President (current), VP, Secretary, Membership Chair, TCI Delegate and Alt Delegate, Meetup Liaison, Policies & Procedures Committee, Scholarship Committee, and Weekend Planning Committee.   Additionally, she was the 1993 TCI Convention Registrar in Boston and the 2001 TCI Convention Day Trip Coordinator in Portland, ME.  Marie is a devoted member of the Beanstalks Scholarship Committee and takes it as a personal responsibility to raise enough funds to provide a scholarship every year. The BBTC Scholarship was renamed the Robert Austin Memorial Scholarship to honor Marie's late husband, whom she introduced and recruited to the Club and shared her love and commitment. Marie works diligently on the Scholarship Committee each year. She is also a Lifetime Achievement Winner for 2019.

Patty Huggett (Vice-Chair, 2020) Patty first discovered Tall Clubs in 1985 and joined Redwood Empire Tall Club. When work took her to Sacramento, she joined Sacramento's club and has been an active member for almost 30 years. She has served on the board of STC as VP,  Secretary, Sgt at Arms, Marketing & Publicity, Scholarship Chair,
Weekend, and Pre-Convention chair. Patty also serves on the TCI Executive Board as the Alt-Executive Officer. Patty met her husband through tall clubs and was married in 1991 to Bob. Patty and Bob have been regular Weekend and Convention attendees over the last 10 years. Patty received a TCI Merit Award in 2014.

Maureen Ricketts (Secretary, 2018) has been a member of the Tall Club of Silicon Valley since 1997.  Over the years, she has served on the board of TCSV as president, secretary, social, and editor.  She participated for several years in selecting the TCSV local scholarship winner.  Maureen represented TCSV as Miss Tall Silicon Valley at the 1998 TCI Convention and received a TCI Merit award in 2007.  Additionally, she has served many times as a delegate for TCSV  at the annual TCI Delegates' Meeting at Convention.  Maureen retired in 2016 after 33 years as a California public school educator (administrator and special education teacher) and now enjoys traveling, spending time with her granddaughter , and mentoring future teachers.

Kate Weigant (Treasurer, 2015) has been a member of Portland Skyliners Tall Club for almost 30 years, making her a lifetime member. During that long tenure she held every local office except treasurer, and was Miss Tall Portland in 1989. Kate was chair person of two TCI weekends hosted by Portland, and was day trip coordinator for the 1997 TCI Convention. She attended multiple conventions and weekends in other cities, and served the TCI Executive Board as Finance Officer for two terms. Kate was proud to receive a TCI Merit Award in 2009, and equally pleased to be selected three times as Portland's Woman of the Year. A retired special educator, Kate now enjoys a variety of activities and traveling with her husband, Bob Weigant. Bob is also a member of Portland Skyliners and served as an award-winning newsletter editor for several years. 

Linda Huege (Publicity, 2020) Linda has been a member of Mad Town Talls since 2004. She was an active member of Paramount Tall Club of Chicago for 25 years (1992-2017) holding the offices of President, Vice President, Membership Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, Visitation and Welfare and Sgt-at-Arms. She also served on numerous Chicago Weekend Planning committees through the years as well as Bylaws Review and Scholarship committees. Linda represented Paramount as Miss Tall Chicago in 2007. She was a recipient of TCI Merit Awards in 2008 and 2014. She and her long-time partner, Dave Knehr, met through TCI and enjoy traveling and attending other clubs’ Weekends and TCI Conventions whenever possible. ​

Doris Chickering (Historian, 2017) Doris joined the Tip Toppers of Washington, D.C. in 1966 and moved to the Tower Club of Baltimore in 1973, where she served as Acting Treasurer and Editor for TTWDC and Editor for Tower Club of Baltimore. Doris was authorized by TCI to collect tall club and affiliation documents and serves as the TCI Archivist. She is the recipient of several TCI Executive Board awards and was designated as the only TCI Honorary Member in 1990. Doris became a supporter of the TCI Foundation in 1992, attending the convention held meetings. Early on she was asked to retain the TCIF archives. In July 2004 she became an honorary member of the TCIF board and as of July 2005 she began a five year regular term on the board. She served as Finance Chair 2005-2008 and has been serving as Publicity Chair for TCIF since July 2008.

Dave Rasmussen (Website, 2020) has been TCI's tallest dues paying member since 1993 at nearly 7'4". He's served as officers of the Milwaukee Skyliners, Milwaukee Toppers and the Tall Club of Milwaukee culminating as president and webmaster of the latter still offering scholarships. He is the 2007 TCI Lifetime Achievement Award and was TCI's Marfan Foundation Liaison for many years. With a background in IT  -  Identity and Access Management,  retiring from the University of WI - Milwaukee Feb 21, 2020 after 34 years, Dave continues to assist his orgs with IT needs while enjoying gigs as an amateur violinist and violist