As a fan of not only Jane Austen but also the Jane Austen Society of North America (member since 1981), I was pleased to see JASNA pop up in an unexpected context recently: as a practitioner of exemplary PR.
“Most recently, I joined the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and have reveled in the refinement of its messaging,” Janeite Laura Hale Brockway, a writer and editor from Texas, recently noted in the online newsletter PR Daily. “In a world of fake news, spam, and ham-handed marketing techniques, receiving their messages is like feeling the sun on your face on a cold day.”
Brockway goes on to praise JASNA for its welcome letter, its donation thank-you, and its crisis communications, which unfortunately got a workout recently when the registration system for September’s Annual General Meeting in Kansas City crashed on the first day it opened. (Luckily, my registration was processed before the problems cropped up, which is of course all that matters.)
I share Brockway’s admiration for JASNA’s literate and gracious approach. Although, really, Jane Austen demands no less.