All a-twitter about the holidays?

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