TAMit!

It's TAM Awards Time!!

Already?? Yes, already!! Now is the time to nominate your programs, exhibits, publications, and awesome volunteers for recognition at the 2023 TAM Awards of Excellence ceremony on Wednesday, March 15, 2023 in Memphis! You will find the updated and revamped guidelines HERE and the nomination form HERE (paper) and HERE (digital). Your Awards Committee has been hard at work updating both of these documents, and we want to make you aware of a few key points:

• First, we have bumped up the nomination deadline up to DECEMBER 15, 2022. The committee was finding it increasingly difficult to properly assess and evaluate all of the wonderful nominations in the original time given, and we want to be fair and thorough, and felt we needed more time to be both. We will continue reaching out to those whose nominations we feel can use a little tweaking, and wanted to be sure there was ample time for that process as well. As with last year, THERE WILL BE NO DEADLINE EXTENSIONS for award nominations! The final and only deadline will be December 15, 2022. There will be NO EXCEPTIONS to this date!
• Temporary exhibits that opened in November or December 2021 are still eligible for nomination for the 2023 awards. This includes holiday-themed exhibits or programs. 
• New in the Education category: Two subcategories - School Programming and Public Programming. Examples are given under each in the Guidelines.
• New category: Fundraising Campaigns (for things other than general operating costs)
• New in the Digital Media category: Blog / Video Blog / YouTube are all combined into one sub-category

• Two new categories, introduced at the 2022 Awards Ceremony: Institutional Impact, and Community Support. Examples are given under each category of what will qualify. These awards are limited annually to one award per Grand Division. 

• These two categories and Volunteers will need a written submission, emailed to awards@tnmuseums.org. Please see instructions in the Guidelines​​.

• New - There will be a Late Fee of $15 per entry for fees not paid by March 1, 2023.  

You can find writing tips for nominations HERE 

The Awards Committee added a couple of new faces to the team. The West Tennessee At-Large Representative is Raka Nandi, Director of Exhibits and Collections, Museum of Science and History in Memphis. The Middle Tennessee At-Large Representative is Jenny Lamb, Executive Director of the Sam Davis Home in Smyrna.  Welcome to the team!

If you have questions, please feel free to email your area representative, found HERE, or Tori Mason, Awards Committee Chair, at tmason@nashvillezoo.org. We look forward to seeing all the awesome things our Tennessee institutions are doing! Good luck!