TAMEC

"It LIVES!"

noreply@blogger.com (TAMEC) — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 22:46:00 +0000

Greetings, Texas Museum Educators! This dormant blog has been brought to life with a hope is that it will once again function as a space of community and resource! What to look for in the coming months: -Musings on Current Issues/ Events that affect Texas Museum Educators -Notifications on upcoming workshops -Notifications of Job Opportunities -New links to digital Educator Resources -Opportunities for renewed investment and involvement in this Committee! We look forward to this digital dialogue with you over the coming months preceding TAM Conference 2016. Please send any suggestions and ideas our way for posts and links you feel would benefit our community!

New TAMEC Board and Operational Procedures

noreply@blogger.com (TAMEC) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 16:39:00 +0000

Below is the list of TAMEC's new Board members! Please wish them well in their new duties. In addition TAMEC's new Operational Procedures have been posted on the right hand column of the blog for final comment. These Operational Procedures were reviewed at the TAM Annual Meeting in San Antonio and have been tweaked slightly to clarify further TAMEC's affinity group relationship to TAM. The new Board will be meeting this summer for our annual retreat under the firm leadership of Kate Betz. I am thrilled to serve as outgoing chair with this dynamic new team in place! TAMEC Board 2012 Kate Betz, The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum - Chair Carey Eagan, The Institute of Texas Cultures - Vice Chair Amy Mitchell, Mayborn Museum - Secretary Emily Arellano, National Ranching Heritage Center - Membership Chair Allison Kellogg, Houston Museum of Natural Science - Member-at-Large (Educator of the Year Award) Alex Freeman, Mexic-Arte Museum - Member-at-Large (TAMEC Mentoring Program) Erin Whitmore, The Old Jail Art Center - Member-at-Large (TAMEC Scholarship) Carolyn Leap, Houston Museum of Natural Science - Member-at-Large (TAMEC Workshop) Sharron Conrad, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza - Past Chair

TAM 2013 - June 1st Deadline for Program Submissions

noreply@blogger.com (TAMEC) — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:18:00 +0000

It's time to submit your ideas for the 2013 TAM Annual Meeting! Here is the recent message from TAM Director Ruth Ann Rugg: I want to encourage you to take an active role in planning the program for the 2013 TAM Annual Meeting. As you know, TAM strives to provide a wide variety of informational sessions. You can help! Please consider what kind of session topics might appeal to your interests—then submit a session proposal. The deadline is fast approaching (June 1), so please help spread the word. Here is the link to submit proposals for the Annual Meeting: http://www.prismnet.com/~tam/ContEd/proposals_app.htmlRAR Let's make sure that there are lots of exciting education sessions next year! Sharron

Camino Real Teacher Training Workshops - June 7-8 and 14-15, 2012

noreply@blogger.com (TAMEC) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:05:00 +0000

Our friends at The Stone Fort Museum want help spreading the word! The Stone Fort Museum will host two workshops in June 2012 exploring the cultural history of El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail. Two locations - Natchitoches, Louisiana and Victoria, Texas - will provide a rich setting for participants and offer variety for those who are interested in attending both events. The workshops are funded by the National Park Service – Intermountain Region, and represent more than a decade of involvement by the Stone Fort Museum in educational programming and interpretation of the Camino Real. El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail was added to the National Trails System in 2004. It crosses Texas into northwest Louisiana and is the historic trail linking Mexico City with the Spanish Colonial capital at Los Adaes, near Robeline, Louisiana. For more information go to: http://www.sfasu.edu/stonefort/elcaminoreal/workshop.asp or email Carolyn Spears at stonefort@sfasu.edu

TAMEC Board Elections 2012

noreply@blogger.com (TAMEC) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:09:00 +0000

Everyone,

It is time to elect the Texas Association of Museums Educators' Committee Board for 2012!

Please take a few minutes to complete the ballot survey by Monday, March 26 by 12 noon:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TAMECBoard2012

Our slate is:

Kate Betz, The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum - Chair
Carey Eagan, The Institute of Texas Cultures - Vice Chair
Amy Mitchell, Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum - Secretary
Emily Arellano, National Ranching Heritage Center - Membership Chair
Allison Kellogg, Houston Museum of Natural Science - Member-at-Large (Educator of the Year Award)
Alex Freeman, Mexic-Arte Museum - Member-at-Large (Mentoring Program)
____, Member-at-Large (TAMEC Workshop)
Sharron Conrad, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza - Past Chair

The official slate will be announced at the TAM Annual Meeting during the TAMEC Affinity Group session on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 from 3:45-4:45 p.m.

See you at the TAM Annual Meeting in San Antonio next week!

Sharron
TAMEC Chair

Nominate someone for TAMEC Educator of the Year award!

noreply@blogger.com (Allison@HMNS) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:15:00 +0000

Each year, TAMEC honors one Educator with the TAMEC Educator of the Year Award at the TAM annual meeting and we're looking for the 2012 honoree! To nominate a friend or colleague for TAMEC Educator of the Year simply email akellogg@hmns.org with the information listed below.

Nominations are due no later than 12pm (noon) on Wednesday, March 14th.

TAMEC Educator of the Year award nominee eligibility requirements:
- Nominees must be a member of TAM and TAMEC
- Nominees must have at least five years experience/employment in an educational capacity and must be currently employed in Texas

NOMINEE INFORMATION
Name:
Current employer:

Current Member of TAM: Yes/No
Current Member of TAMEC: Yes/No

NOMINATOR INFORMATION
Name:
Email Address:
Phone Number:
How long have you known the Nominee:
Why are you nominating this person to be recognized as the TAMEC Educator of the Year 2012?
Nominations are due no later than noon on Wednesday, March 14, 2012.
Please send your nominations to Allison Kellogg via email akellogg@hmns.org

TAMEC Workshop 2012, Election News and TAM Annual Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (TAMEC) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:13:00 +0000

Everyone,

Thanks again to all of you who attended the 2012 TAMEC Workshop at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in January. It was a great session and our speakers were incredibly informative.

For those of you who missed the Workshop, here are the TAMEC Workshop Notes.

Also, we will be electing new TAMEC Board members this month. Stay tuned for an email with our slate of candidates and your opportunity to vote.

Finally, congratulations to Melissa Prycer, Mikey Sproat and Kathryn Mitchell, who have been elected to serve as TAM Councillors-at-Large! It is wonderful to have so many educators serving TAM in this way. Let's also congratulate Erin Whitmore, selected as this year's TAMEC Scholarship awardee.

We look forward to seeing all of you in San Antonio at the TAM Annual Meeting (March 27-30, 2012)!

Sharron
TAMEC Acting Chair,
The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
sharronc@jfk.org

Register for TAM in San Antonio - FREE!!

noreply@blogger.com (Allison@HMNS) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:05:00 +0000

Oh good, I have your attention!

TAMEC is offering a registration scholarship for the 2012 TAM Annual Meeting in San Antonio to one lucky winner and I didn't want you to miss out on the opportunity to apply! This is a "complete package" scholarship so you won't miss a thing - just think of all you'll learn.

Application details are below - your scholarship is just an email away. Don't forget that the deadline is NEXT FRIDAY - FEBRUARY 3rd!!

The following TAM Affinity Groups are offering scholarships to the TAM Annual Meeting. To apply please send a resume, references, and a one-page letter stating reasons for applying for the scholarship to admin@texasmuseums.org. Application deadline is February 3, 2012.Email applications are preferred.

Texas Association of Museums Educators’ Committee (TAMEC) is offering one “complete package” registration scholarship valued at $375. Applicants must be a member of TAM and TAMEC and currently employed in an educational capacity at a facility in Texas. Recipients will be responsible for their travel, lodging, and incidental costs. Previous recipients are not eligible.
The following TAM Affinity Groups are offering scholarships to the TAM Annual Meeting. To apply please send a resume, references, and a one-page letter stating reasons for applying for the scholarship to admin@texasmuseums.org. Application deadline is February 3, 2012.Email applications are preferred.

http://www.prismnet.com/~tam/annualmeeting2012/scholarships.html

- Allison@HMNS

TAMEC Workshop - January 23, 2012

noreply@blogger.com (TAMEC) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:03:00 +0000

Everyone,

Please save Monday, January 23 from 10 am-3 pm for the annual TAMEC Workshop! Our friends at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin have agreed to host us once again.

Beginning in 2012 all TAM Affinity group membership dues and registration fees will go through the TAM office. To keep things simple during the transition period, we've decided to make the 2012 TAMEC Workshop free.

So, please plan to join us in Austin next month. Details will be sent via email later this week. We'll do a TAMEC business meeting in the morning from 10 am-12 noon and then lunch from noon-1 pm (on your own in The Story of Texas Cafe). On the business meeting agenda: update on TAMEC By-Laws, a review of plans for the TAM Annual Meeting and a conversation about TAMEC Board elections.

Following lunch join us for a workshop focused on social media in the museum: Making Social Work: Join the Conversation without Overwhelming Your Staff or Volunteers. Juan Garcia, New Media Manager at The University of Texas Faculty Innovation Center will jump start our strategy session about effective use of new media in the museum field.

Everyone is welcome to the social media conversation, so please encourage other museum professionals to come! Registration will be open on the TAM website and will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Happy holidays and we look forward to seeing you in Austin,

Sharron Conrad,
Acting TAMEC Chair

Visitor Input on Exhibits?

noreply@blogger.com (Sharron) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:01:00 +0000

Hey TAMEC,

Evelyn Montgomery of Dallas Heritage Village sits on TAM Program Committee and she's looking for panelists to speak about visitor input on exhibits at the 2012 Annual Meeting in San Antonio (March 27-30, 2012).

Can you help? Here's the request for help and Evelyn's contact info:

"I am looking for speakers for a possible session on using visitor input to create exhibits, at the 2012 TAM conference. I think this is a topic many attendees would find interesting, but I am having difficulty finding anyone in our TAM community who has carried out such a project. If you have successfully, or less successfully, used visitor input to write labels, design exhibits, select artifacts or any other aspect of exhibit creation and would be willing to speak about it, please contact me."

Evelyn Montgomery, Ph. D.
Curator of Exhibits and Collections
Dallas Heritage Village
214-413-3666
emontgomery@dallasheritagevillage.org

TAMEC Dues, Elections and By-Laws

noreply@blogger.com (Sharron) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:04:00 +0000

Hello TAMEC!

It was great to see everyone at the TAM Annual Meeting! If you weren't able to join us, here's an update on what we discussed at the TAMEC Affinity Group session:

• The IRS (and TAM’s auditors) have required more oversight of the organization’s affinity groups. This means that, beginning in 2012, TAM will be collecting membership dues on our behalf. Details on how this process will work will be finalized between now and early 2012.

• We will hold off on collecting TAMEC dues until this process has been determined. All of you will be considered members of TAMEC until the new process for dues collection is clarified.

• I have agreed to serve as interim Chair of TAMEC until formal elections can be held at the March Annual Meeting. Katie Smith will serve as Vice-Chair. All other members of the TAMEC Board—Millie Vanover, Mikey Sproat, Kathryn Mitchell and Allison Kellogg—will continue to serve in their roles until elections.

• All of TAM’s affinity groups will need to revisit their By-Laws as a result of the new policies. “By-Laws” will, in future, be referred to as “Operating Procedures”, since all of the affinity groups ultimately must abide by TAM’s By-Laws, which override those of the affinity groups.

- A Sub-Committee has been appointed to review the existing TAMEC By-Laws and will recommend changes. The Sub-Committee will share its recommendations at the 2102 Annual Meeting.

- The Sub-Committee consists of myself, Mikey Sproat (Sam Houston Memorial Museum) and Diane Bernhardt (Dr. Pepper Museum). Melissa Prycer (Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park; TAM Council member) will also serve as an advisory member of this Sub-Committee.

- Mikey Sproat has agreed to share updates on the Sub-Committee’s progress on this blog. (Thank you, Mikey!)

Please let me know if you have any questions. Such a period of change, but also a great opportunity to reorganize so that we better serve the needs of museum educators in Texas!

Thank you all for your input and support, and please keep an eye on the blog for updates on the Sub-Committee’s progress.

Sharron
sharronc@jfk.org

TAMEC Educator of the Year - Melissa Prycer

noreply@blogger.com (Allison@HMNS) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:01:00 +0000

It was great to see everyone at the TAMEC Affinity Group meeting last Thursday at the TAM Annual Meeting! I had a moment to talk about the process of accepting nominations and determining the TAMEC Educator of the Year but because we wanted to keep the award a surprise until the Awards Luncheon we did not announce the winner on Thursday afternoon... so this is for everyone who missed the luncheon:

A big congratulations to this year's TAMEC Educator of the Year...

Melissa Prycer of Dallas Heritage Village!

I wanted to highlight a few things that jumped out at me from Melissa's nomination -

"Melissa truly cares about her museum and her profession."

"...her love of the museum shows in the many hours she devotes to it, the care with which she plans programs and her care in dealing with volunteers, visitors, and other staff."

"She is not afraid of innovation, and is constantly looking for new ideas."

The recipient of the Educator of the Year award does not make a speech at the awards luncheon but here are a few words from Melissa:

"I am incredibly lucky to have a job that I love - and to get recognized for the work that I do is icing on the cake! Since beginning at the Village in 2004, TAMEC has been a part of my professional life. The workshops, networking, and sessions at the Annual Meeting have been invaluable tools as I've adjusted existing programs or implemented new programs. I wouldn't be half the educator I am today without that community, and it's my honor to continue exchanging ideas, advice, and stories with them. It is truly an honor to be recognized as Educator of the Year."

We are so proud to have Melissa as part of our TAMEC community! Congratulations!

- Allison @hmns

Irving, TX - Here we come!

noreply@blogger.com (Allison@HMNS) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 06:32:00 +0000

I'm gathering my stuff and heading to Irving, TX for the Texas Association of Museums (TAM) annual meeting -- will you be there?

The TAMEC affinity group meeting will be held on Thursday, August 4th at 3:45pm - please join us at the meeting and introduce yourself! We always love the opportunity to meet our fellow Museum Educators and chat about all of our exciting new projects and Museum happenings!

So go ahead and mark it on your calendar to join us at 3:45pm at the TAMEC meeting!

Can't wait to see you there!

- Allison @hmns

Session Proposals for 2012 TAM Annual Meeting - Due July 15!

noreply@blogger.com (Sharron) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:03:00 +0000

Here's a message from Melissa Prycer, a TAM Council Member (and former TAMEC Chair):

With TAM in August this year, several things have been thrown slightly off-kilter. A big one: the program committee for the 2012 conference has their first meeting on July 8. Which is before our 2011 conference! As a colleague pointed out “I always get my good ideas for sessions after the conference, not before!” So they really, really need our help. Proposals are just barely trickling in.

So, if you have an idea, get cracking!

Here's a link to the Session Proposal Application. Deadline is July 15th.

And in the mean time, if any of you might be willing to speak on some sessions ideas I have, let me know!

My ideas:

Teen Volunteer Programs: I want to feature our Junior Historian program (they’re opening their first exhibit next week!), but there need to be some other voices. And it doesn’t have to be from a history museum perspective.

Budget Realities: Just about all of us are now working with smaller budgets, smaller staff, smaller everything. As an educator, how do you decide what to cut? How do you “make do” in this new economic reality?

Follow up with Melissa at: MPrycer@dallasheritagevillage.org

It's that time again...

noreply@blogger.com (Allison@HMNS) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:45:00 +0000

SUMMER CAMP IS HERE!! We are just finishing up week two and things are going pretty well - we will have a full house (approaching 600 kiddos) when July hits so before ALL the kids get here I wanted to check in with my fellow Museum Educators and see what your summer plans are for camps or other summer programs!

We are lucky to be an air-conditioned facility in the Houston heat but I know that is not a luxury everyone is afforded at their facility - let us know what you're up to!

Is anyone offering Overnight stays for families at their facility this summer?

Single Day camps?

Family Workshops?

Special Summer series of films, lectures or events?

Stay cool and I'm looking forward to seeing you all in August at TAM in Irving, TX!

*Allison @ HMNS

TAMEC Scholarship

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:59:00 +0000

TAMEC Scholarship Reminder

We wanted to remind you that TAM/TAMEC members can apply for a $300 scholarship to be used towards registration for the annual TAM conference Aug. 4 - 6 2011 in Irving, TX.

Application Due: July 1, 2011

Qualifications

1. You must be a paid member of TAM or TAMEC

2. You can not be a board member of TAMEC

3. You must be employed in an educational capacity at a facility in Texas

4. You must submit the following application by the designated deadline to be

considered.

Guidelines

1. The TAMEC Board reserves the right to determine the recipient of the scholarship

2. Scholarship recipients this year are not eligible for the same scholarship next year.

Apply here or for more information and to receive an application, please contact Kathryn at 325-762-2269.

TAM Council Elections - Have You Voted?

noreply@blogger.com (Sharron) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:42:00 +0000

Hey TAMEC...there is still time to vote in the TAM Council Election!

Polling for the 2011 Council elections is in progress. The deadline is February 18 and all TAMEC members should vote today. Voting is the best possible way to ensure that your interests, needs and concerns are heard!

This election will fill positions for five officers and four councillors-at-large for a two-year term beginning in March 2011. Click here for the ballot. We have an excellent slate of candidates to choose from.

Results will be announced on March 25, 2011 at the TAM Annual Business Meeting in Austin.

Technology in place at your Museum?

noreply@blogger.com (Allison@HMNS) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 19:16:00 +0000

A link to the New Media Consortium's Horizon Report - the Museum Edition (via @frenchlegation on twitter). Interesting information here and some additional resources noted as well.

What new technologies does your Museum already have in place? What do you see on the horizon of your organization in the next year? next 5 years?

- Allison @HMNS

What's in store for 2011?

noreply@blogger.com (Allison@HMNS) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:48:00 +0000

Happy New Year to all of our blog readers out there! The beginning of a new year is a good time to set goals, start fresh, look to the future and get ready to hit the ground running - what do you have in store for 2011?

For me, returning to the Museum after the holidays is always a little daunting... I always have a little bit of that feeling that I've been sick from school, have to catch up on a lot of classwork and still be ready for the big test coming up. Yikes! There's no time to stop and think, the to-do lists seem to be getting longer rather than shorter and I have a feeling that Summer camp is actually just around the corner...

I really enjoyed meeting some of you at the TAMEC January Workshop in Austin at the Bob Bullock Museum. It was good to hear what's going on at other institutions - big and small across the state! I'm excited to stay in touch with you all via the blog and see you at the TAM annual meeting in August and catch up on what you're up to. I have set a few Museum related 2011 goals for myself and I thought I'd share them with you here and see if you all have any goals you'd like to share or things you'd like to see happen in your Museum or others this year!

1. Learn more about my Museum. As I get tangled in my work in the Education area of the Museum and the days have a tendency to melt away. I'd like to take more tours of our exhibitions with docents this year, see more of the IMAX offerings, and even take more walks around the Butterfly Center to see what's blooming and fluttering around.

2. Learn more about other Texas Museums. I've met so many interesting Museum folks through TAM and TAMEC but I think it's time for me to get out and start visiting them! My vacation days usually stack up until December due to our heavy weekend programming schedules, overnights, etc so maybe I need to work on taking some weekend Museum road trips this year!

3. Stay Connected. There are so many great museum educators and programs across our great state. It would be nice for us to keep the lines of communication open and maybe even get some local partnerships going when it fits the project to do so! I'm dreaming of maybe a monthly group meeting of museum educators for coffee and a tour of one exhibit/museum here in Houston - any of you have anything like this going in your area?

Now it's your turn - what have you got coming up on the horizon for 2011? What would you like to see happening in your programming or your city!?

Stay in touch!

- Allison @HMNS

Adult Education Program Coordinator - Job Opportunity

noreply@blogger.com (Sharron) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:42:00 +0000

The Texas State Historical Association is seeking an Adult Education Program Coordinator to provide responsible coordination of educational programs aimed at promoting history education among adults with an emphasis on Texas history educators. Position is offered on a contractual basis with the possibility of future full employment contingent on performance and funding. This is a full-time, contract position at the UNT campus in Denton.

Essential Duties:

* Assist the Director of Educational Services with developing, planning, scheduling and implementing activities, meetings and workshops for educator training, the Walter P. Webb Society, and other educational resource programs.

* Moderate editorial responsibilities in addition to correspondence preparation for related programs.

* Assist with recruitment of program participants and sponsors.

* Coordinate and review work of clerical and administrative staff performing data entry on participant databases and assisting in production of meeting information.

* Participate in promotion and planning of current and future education initiatives.

* Assist with meeting management for TSHA events.

* Up to 20% travel is required.

* Perform all other duties as assigned.

Compensation:

Salary is $50,000-$62,500 depending on experience. Benefits are not included as this is a contract position.

For immediate consideration, please e-mail or fax cover letter, resume, and salary requirements to: stevecure@tshaonline.org or FAX:(940) 369-5248

Additional details can be found on the TSHA website.

TAMEC Workshop 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Sharron) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:26:00 +0000

Will you be there?

Survivor: Museum Educator Edition! Crafting budgets, writing grants, planning fundraisers (and living to tell the tale)

Monday, January 24, 2011
The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum
9 am - 3 pm

AGENDA

Networking

Welcome and Introductions

Budgeting 101 Using MS Excel, Jennifer Wijangco, Arthouse at the Jones Center

Grant Opportunities: A Panel Discussion, Allison Supancic, Regional Foundation Library, Eric Lupfer, Humanities Texas, Lisa Avra, Texas Historical Commission, Laura M. Wiegand, Texas Commission on the Arts

Lunch at The Story of Texas Café

Outside of the Box Fundraisers - Brainstorming and Sharing

TAMEC Business Meeting - TAMEC Chair, Jennifer Rogers

Wrap Up and Evaluation

Need Accommodations in Austin?
A small block of rooms has been reserved at The Holiday Inn Town Lake (20 N. IH 35, Austin, TX 78701)

Call 1-888-615-0509 and give code MUS to reserve at the $109 rate (for two double beds or one king). Or click here to book online.

Rate good through January 10th. Includes airport shuttle, roof-top pool, and complimentary parking and wireless.

Ready to register?

Check out the TAMEC Workshop Registration form on the right (under Links of Interest).

See you there!

Soap, and your museum's collection.

noreply@blogger.com (mikey) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:50:00 +0000

We have several projects happening at our museum. Some are exhibits, some are grounds, some are education, some are everything rolled into one.

We just moved (with the help of a contract house moving company) a 150 year old log cabin onto our grounds. The cabin was not moved piece by piece, but intact, minus the roof, porches, and chimneys. To get the structure through the rather narrow entrance, the truck with cabin in tow was not lined up correctly to make it in one pass. The solution was to jack up the back axle and place the the trailer frame on railroad ties. The second to top piece was rubbed with bar soap, then the trailer frame was slid across the lumber, moving the back end of the trailer enough to gain access into the entrance. The moving process took the better part of one day to transport the cabin from the entrance of the grounds onto it final location in the middle of the park. The bar soap solved the problem, and at the end of the day, we moved a cabin...with our own hands.

History can be taught through your museum's collection only as you are able to handle the objects you are charged with preserving. I'm not advocating teaching art by taking the Mona Lisa off the wall and using it as a hands-on study guide. I simply think that museums can draw a healthy balance between this unthinkable (if not far-reaching) example and using the museum's collection to teach beyond what we learn from a two dimensional book.

The task of preserving an object does take on a significant priority for museums. Yet if museums simply place this object on a shelf and white-glove dusts the object indefinitely, museums lose their informational stewardship (google it). They lose the chance for people to know more about the object; the object loses its context; the very real object become no more important than reading about the object in a book.

Here's a charge for the new year. Get one object off a shelf, and give someone the opportunity to have a hands-on history (or art, or science) lesson. Shalom and happy holidays yall --

Michael C. "Mikey" Sproat
Sam Houston Memorial Museum, Huntsville, Texas

P.S. Next time yall make it through Huntsville, stop by and check out our new (150 year old) cabin. Not only does it have a great story, but I'll also tell you about the soap. -- Mikey.

All a-twitter about the holidays?

noreply@blogger.com (Allison@HMNS) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:43:00 +0000

The holidays are here -- you can't deny it! The holiday tunes are piped into every shopping center, children bounce through the Museum halls with jingle bell necklaces and rustly coats, we even got a little wintery weather here in Houston this week which is a change! For my the education department here at HMNS December means a time to recharge and get geared up for the new year of programming.

With laptops and smartphones always within an arm's reach it's hard for me to get away from my Museum world and social network... which is really not a bad thing! I have really come to use social networking, twitter specifically in my case, to stay on top of things going on in my city and neighborhood, the news, my friends and especially Museums and the non-profit world of course! When I'm not at my Museum busy with my projects I'm always jazzed to hear about other institutions ongoing projects, discoveries, new exhibits and what sort of programming folks in my position elsewhere are offering!

So do YOU Tweet?

So many Museums and non-profits are on Twitter these days and it has become a viable way to raise funds or solicit donations that keeping the social network up to speed on what your agency is up to can really work to your advantage! Even TAMEC is on twitter (@tamedcomm) and we want to follow you and your institution! If you're not following @TAMedcomm on twitter please do and we'll follow back - we want to know what is going on with your Museum, in your area of study, at non-profits you support and we want to share it with the rest of the TAMEC community.

If you are new to twitter and looking for folks to follow to keep up to speed as a Museum Educator - here are a few Texas Museums, Educational organizations and professional organizations that we are following on Twitter - if you know of some we're not following please leave a comment so that we can correct that!

Houston Museum of Natural Science: @hmns
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft: @crafthouston
Dallas Museum of Art: @dallasmuseumart
Texas Ranger Museum: @txrangermuseum
Dallas Museum of Natural Science: @dallasmns
Kimbell Art Museum: @kimbellart
Texas Education Agency: @teainfo
American Association of Museums: @aamers
The Health Museum: @thehealthmuseum

I hope each and every one of you has a relaxing and rejuvinating holiday season and you get a little break even if your institution is having winter camp, family events, extending holidays hours!

Stay warm and I'll be back on the blog after the new year!
- Allison @HMNS

TAMEC Scholarship Reminder

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:34:00 +0000

We wanted to remind you starting May 1, 2011 you can apply for a $300 scholarship to be used towards registration for the annual TAM conference Aug. 4-6 2011 in Irving, TX.

Application Due: Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Qualifications

1. You must be a paid member of TAM and TAMEC

2. You can not be a board member of TAMEC

3. You must be employed in an educational capacity at a facility in Texas

4. You must submit the following application by the designated deadline to be

considered.

Guidelines

1. The TAMEC Board reserves the right to determine the recipient of the scholarship

2. Scholarship recipients this year are not eligible for the same scholarship next year.

We will post the application May 1, 2011 and all applications must be received via email.

Workshop Registration Form posted

noreply@blogger.com (TAMEC) — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 17:19:00 +0000

The Annual Workshop Registration form has been posted. You can access it here.

Date: January 24
Location: Bob Bullock State History Museum
Cost: $25 for members, $30 non-members
Theme: Survivor: Museum Educator Edition--Crafting Budgets, Writing Grants, Planning Fundraisers and Living to Tell the Tale