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Site
History
CaseyC started A Happier Alternative as a story page for "A
Most Beloved Sister"
in September of 2006. She experimented around with a few free webhosts,
and eventually ended up on Bravenet. Until October of that year, it was
just Casey.
Around mid-October, Casey invited Sarapencil to
begin posting with her on the story pages. For a while, Sara sent her
the chapters and Casey posted both stories every day.
With
such wonderful stories, it wasn’t long before they regularly exceeded
the bandwidth of their free site and cleverly discovered how to link
multiple free webhosts together in order to keep AHA up and running.
Casey is the first to admit that this was a less than ideal solution,
but it worked for the time.
As time went on, other authors
wanted to be included in AHA’s author pages, and Casey continued her
makeshift adjustments to accommodate the increased traffic, including
the addition of a mailing list and sending daily announcements when new chapters
were posted.
Then, on October 27th, Casey purchased
ahappieralternative.com and made the first permanent move there. AHA
cost Casey approximately $11.99 per month in those days. As the only
one with access to the website software, it was up to Casey to post for
every author daily, which was tedious, but it was so exciting to see
AHA’s growth and reception, that Casey & Sara just ‘kept truckin'
with big grins’. They kept the Bravenet webjournal comment pages linked
to the stories on AHA. The thought of adding a forum didn’t occur to
them at this time.
On October 29th, they were invited to be
added to JAFFindex, and on November 11th AHA.com went live, and Casey
posted the announcement at Darcyfic.
Around the end of
November 2006, Casey considered disbanding AHA, and announced her
decision. The blogging and the letters begging her to reconsider,
however, eventually convinced her to keep the site up. Casey was
rightfully proud of her baby even if it was a quiet corner in the JAFF
world!
January 13th of 2007 was the night Casey finally
figured out how to set up the first forum. And that forum still exists
in today’s current board.
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Direct quote from Casey
"I remember we were so
relieved to get rid of that infernal blog! On
July 31st, I announced the merge with Austen Interlude; I believe we
were almost at 2000 members at that point. I was in a hotel room in
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee when AHA went live; that was a very
exciting time."
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Shortly
after July 31st, AbigailR and Edot joined Casey and Sara in the care
and feeding of AHA which was growing by leaps and bounds. Fast enough
that the forum was developing quirks and a personality of its own.
Abigail and Elaine took over the search for a more robust forum and
found Invision Power Board, the software that we are still using today.
The advantage of IPB was that they could transfer the data from the
original forums to the new forums, ensuring continuity in discussions
and stories.
In August of 2007 Shmarollynn and EllenJP brought The Pemberley
Library onto the AI server as well.
By
November of 2007 it was clear that AHA was growing at such a rate that
there needed to be more involved members to support the growth and to
reach the goals the admins had in mind. It also was apparent that the
bandwidth necessary to keep the board running was going to require a
fairly significant budget, enough that donations would have to be
reported to the IRS.
With a vision of what AHA could be, in late
November/early December Abigail and Edot shepherded the board through a
very difficult server change. During this stressful time, Sara
unexpectedly had her baby early, and Casey took some needed time away to
focus on RL issues. Abigail, busy with the never-ending server
changeover, found she needed more help and recruited more
administrators – Cjoki, gail_etc and JillTarah – to help with the
increasingly difficult job of managing the rapidly growing board.
Moushele, who knew the ins/outs of incorporating a non-profit also
volunteered to take on the task of completing the non-profit paperwork,
and jean_genie, agreed to oversee the large job of managing the growing
number of new members.
A first draft of incorporation papers
were completed and ready by January 2008, and a list of potential Board
Members and Officers for the Corporation was drawn up.
Gail-etc
and JillTarah graciously accepted the positions of CEO/Vice-CEO;
Moushele signed on as CIO/Secretary, and SarahPenycat kindly agreed to
be our CFO/Treasurer.
In February of 2008, Casey and Sara
tendered their resignations from the Board of Directors, and along with
them, two of the original moderators, Meg_Evenstar and Gsherwood, did
as well. All four ladies had very full lives and wanted to focus on
other things (like writing) and they moved on. Krishub and
Nursejulielynn joined Stacy on the moderating team in February to help
keep the streets of AHA clean.
Throughout January and February
2008, the search was on to find members willing to fill the management
positions required by the State of California for incorporation and to
settle on a name for the corporation.
Many suggestions for
names were floated amongst the fledgling officers, Board of Directors
and AHA Management. Finally settling on Meryton Literary Society, Inc,
the paperwork could be sent across the country for signatures. The last
three signatures were acquired at April in Arkansas 2008 and mailed that
weekend to the State of California.
During the Spring of 2008,
the management team decided that a fourth moderator was needed, one who
had a different perspective. Stargazer who had moderation experience
from other sites and was an author, was asked if she would be willing to
join the team. Everyone was thrilled when she accepted.
It
took two submittals to California, but by July 2008 the state had
recognized Meryton Literary Society, Inc. as a non-profit entity, and by
August 2008 the IRS paperwork had been filed.
The current
Admins, Moderators, Officers and Board of Directors continue to move
forward with many of the strategic improvements that CaseyC, Sara and
Abigail dreamed of but weren’t able to implement, with a few of their
own thrown in for good measure. They've created the Meryton Reading Room,
added the Playground, publish a Meryton Times regularly, added
Birthdays and Calendars, added a ‘memorials’ page and have revamped the
forums.
And they’re not done yet…. They have a plan for things to come!
So
thank you to all the leaders who came before, who had the vision and
drive to create such a wonderful JAFF home, ultimately leading us to
these milestones! And another huge THANKS to all the members who make
this assembly a great place to call home.
16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817
Novels
- Sense and Sensibility (1811)
- Pride and Prejudice (1813)
- Mansfield Park (1814)
- Emma (1815)
- Northanger Abbey (1817) (posthumous)
- Persuasion (1817) (posthumous)
Short fiction
Unfinished fiction
- The Watsons (1804)
- Sanditon (1817)
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The Volunteer Staff
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Cjoki - Vice CEO MLS / AHA Root Admin
Connie found JAFF in 2004 and joined the
MLS staff in December
2007. Connie's main duties include fundraising, technical
support
and the Meryton Reading Room. Her love of Jane Austen started in
high school after reading P&P for the first time. It wasn't
until 20 years later that her love for Jane turned in to a JAFF obsession.
Connie lives in Oregon,
USA, with her husband, two daughters and two cats. She loves to
read JAFF, dabble a little in writing, quilts, beads, makes homemade
jam and loves to attend the JAFF tea parties.
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ellenjp - Board of
Directors & Pemberley Library
Ellen has been involved in JAFF since
2004, discovering
Austen’s novels at the relatively advanced age of 58. (Better late than
never!)
Not owning a laptop, she began creating printable PDF versions of her
favorite
stories, so she could take Darcy to bed! She has been a board member
since MLS
incorporated in 2008.
Ellen has been owner, financial officer, IT guru and housekeeper for
her
graphic design business in central Virginia since 1993. In her
infinitesimally
brief, non-business hours, she helps authors prepare their books for
publishing, drinks a bit of wine, reads the best fanfic in the
universe,
watches classic movies, tries to keep her husband straight, and
sleeps!
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gail_etc - CEO MLS /
AHA Root Admin
Gail
discovered JAFF in 2005 and
joined the MLS staff in December 2007. As an officer she works hand in
hand
with Michele and Connie with the nitty-gritty, down and dirty aspects
of
keeping the site up and running smoothly.
Gail loves JAFF, loves JAFFers even
more and loves writing her version of JAFF most of all. She writes to
preserve
what little sanity she has left - finding it to be cheap therapy
(except for
the times it threatens to rip her guts out instead).
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gailw15 / AHA Root Admin
GailW fell in love with Jane Austen many years ago in High
School but it wasn’t until after her second viewing of P&P2 in 1998 that
she discovered JAFF and has been hooked ever since! She joined the MLS
staff in October of 2009 and is responsible for the member validation queue and
assisting with other site maintenance.
Gail lives with her husband in Massachusetts, USA and has two grown
children. She works part-time as the
benefits manager of a Fortune 100 company and in her spare time loves to read,
travel (especially to JAFF tea parties), camp and watch her beloved New England
Patriots.
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Krishub - Board of
Directors / AHA Moderator
Kristin
has been involved in JAFF since 2005 and has been a moderator at AHA
since January 2008 and a board member since February
2008. She has loved Austen ever since she picked up P&P when
she was 16. She loves literature, baking, long distance running,
and going to AHA gatherings to eat, drink, and laugh with her Darcy
loving friends. When she is not engaged in one of these
activities, she is running her two kids to school, hockey, baseball,
soccer, ballet, guitar, softball, youth group, and basketball depending
upon the season. She has been married to her very understanding,
patient husband since 1993 and lives in the Dallas suburbs.
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LoryL - Board of
Directors
Lory discovered JAFF
in 2004 as an avid reader then a year later as a tentative author. She joined MLS in November 2008 as a member of the
board of directors.
Lory
lives in
Bucharest, Romania, with her dear husband, her dear daughter of 14 and
her dear
dog ( a French bulldog). She works as an Organizational Development
Manager in
a multinational company, and when she is not working ( which is very
rare),
she loves reading ( Pride and Prejudice is the all time favorite),
JAFF, going
to the theatre and writing ( JAFF, of course).
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Moushele - CIO
MLS / AHA Rood Admin
Michele
discovered JAFF in 2005 after watching P&P 1995 for the
first time and loving it. Primarily a lurker on other sites until
finding AHA right after it was born, that changed in a big way! Now
you'll find her just about anywhere on the board, and she has written
several JAFF shorts and stories. Michele works primarily on technical
issues for MLS.
Michele lives in Washington State, USA (not the
one with the politicians) in her 'cabin' on the beach. She travels
extensively for her work and has met JAFFers across the country. |
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Nursejulielynn - Board
of Directors / AHA Moderator
Jules has been
involved in JAFF since 2003 and joined the MLS staff as
a moderator in 2008. She with the help of the other pink
ladies, help keep the board organized and running smoothly.
Jules lives in Orange County, California USA with her dog Crispin
(named for the actor who played Bingley in P&P2) where she works as
a nurse on a respiratory failure unit. When not working she
loves to read (not write!) JAFF, hang out at the movies, and enjoy the
wonderful So Cal weather while driving her red bug convertible along
the coast.
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RuthO - Chairman of the
Board of Directors
Ruth
discovered JAFF in 2006, joined AHA in April of 2007 and joined the Board
of
Directors of MLS in 2008. In July of 2009, Ruth was elected
Chairman of
the Board and is now happily banging her gavel, always ready to run the
next
meeting.
Ruth
lives in the
Boston Area of the United States with her husband and has two lovely
and
accomplished daughters. She is an obsessed JAFF reader and has an
author page
in the Meryton Reading Room. Outside of JAFF, Ruth enjoys
singing,
painting, making earrings, downloading iTunes and attending as many tea
parties
as her Amex points will pay for. |
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sadriani - Board of
Directors
Susan
joined the MLS staff in August of 2009 as a member of the Board of
Directors.
When she's not writing, Susan enjoys being outdoors, hiking, reading,
and spending time with her family - all of whom, incidentally, are
very, very indulgent about her JAFF addiction. She lives in New
England, USA with her husband, their young daughter, and a very heavy
cat.
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Sarahpenycat -
CFO MLS / AHA Root Admin
Sarah
has been a fan of P&P since the '95 mini-series but an avid
reader since childhood. She discovered JAFF in 1999 while in college
and spent more time reading stories than studying on more than one
occasion. Joining the MLS staff in early 2008 as the CFO, she balances
the checkbook and moves money around to keep the bills paid.
She
lives in northwest Arkansas with her sweet dog (Sasha) and cat (Horus).
She works for a large regional bank as a consultant in the database
marketing area, ensuring that the bank employees know as much about a
customer as possible. When not working, she loves reading, watching
movies, riding horses, cooking, hosting gatherings, attending
gatherings, playing and raiding in World of Warcraft, and sleeping. |
shmarollynn - Pemberley
Library
Carol .....
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Stacy - Board of
Directors / AHA Moderator
Stacy had been a semi-fan of Jane Austen's work for as
long as she could remember but became a die hard after watching P&P
'95. After watching that movie she picked up copies of all JA's
works and read them all with relish. She first discovered JAFF in the
Spring 2005 and became a fanatic almost instantly. Lurking for the
longest time but then finally making the plunge and herself known, boy
howdy, you couldn't shut her up. Stacy became a Moderator at AHA
in Aug/Sept 2007 and became a member of the Board in Febuary 2008.
Stacy lives in the Sacramento Valley in Northern
California with her hubby, her daughter and her son. Besides her love of
JAFF, she likes to camp and hang out with her family, meet up
with JAFFers, read smut, loves cooking and baking, and reading more
smut.
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stargazer- Board of
Directors / AHA Moderator
Angie discovered JAFF in 2001 and joined the MLS staff
as a moderator in May of 2008.
When she isn't reading or writing, Angie is
working towards her degree in English and Creative Writing,
and when the homework is done, she enjoys cooking, music,
wine-making and talking about books. Angie is also a co-creator
of a book review blog and loves to talk about anything literary
and historical. Angie lives in Indiana with her husband, Dave,
and her new baby daughter, Caris.
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zuki
- Graphic Designer / MRR Coordinator
Zuki is a freelance graphic designer/photographer by day and closet
JAFF addict by night. She found the wonderful world of JAFF in 2005
but didn't delurk until 2007 and started dabbling in writing about a
year later. Zuki began to lend a hand behind the scenes at MLS with
some graphics work and then the inauguration of the MRR.
Zuki
resides in New England, USA with her own William D, loves watching
period dramas, and dreams of one day visiting Scotland. In addition to
working in freelance, she also moonlights in fashion retail, and
illustrates for fun. |
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