Through the Sponsored Website Program, the California Democratic Council (CDC) currently offers web hosting services for Democratic organizations throughout California. So far, the program hosts 51 websites, although the IT Committee is planning on aggressively expanding its operations to offer our signature website service to as many Clubs and Central Committees as possible.
The CDC Tech Standing Committee efficiently manages over 50 sites on our network by utilizing a WordPress multisite system. This system is particularly useful for plan participants who are at risk of losing access to their website due to political disagreements or communication issues. It’s also useful for those who don’t have the technical expertise to start a WordPress website or don’t have the funds to pay for individual website expenses.
If your club would like to join the Sponsored Website Project, please fill out the CDC affiliation form.
As part of the services we provide to those whose clubs or central committees are enrolled in the Sponsored Website Program, the CDC Tech Standing Committee will be hosting a Zoom call on the 3rd Thursday of every month, starting on August 20th, 2020. In these meetings, here we will cover general technical questions related to the Sponsored Website Program, video conferencing, digital organizing tools, and virtual events
For specific technical issues or requests, Sponsored Website Program participants can email tech@cdc-ca.org for assistance.
On the CDC affiliation form, please indicate that your club needs a website. Once the form is submitted, someone from the CDC Tech Committee will reach out to you or your club president in order to start the website creation process.
As part of our commitment to serve Democratic grassroots organizations, we charge $0 for Democratic clubs and central committees who join the Sponsored Website Program. However, in order to keep this program free for Democratic organizations, we ask that you donate so that we can pay for the program’s upkeep costs.
There are only 3 requirements for clubs and central committees to join the Sponsored Website Project:
- Your club / central committee must be affiliated with the California Democratic Council. You may affiliate your club using this form.
- Indicate that your club needs a website on your affiliation form.
- Your club’s affiliation is approved by the CDC Membership Director.
If you are a current board member for your club, or are your club’s webmaster, please contact our Tech Coordinator at tech@cdc-ca.org.
Since all websites in our Sponsored Website Program use the same resources as each other, individual sites cannot install new plugins and themes. However, if you want to add any themes or plugins, please email our Tech Coordinator so that we may add it for you.
Likewise, individual site admins cannot remove any plugins or themes. However, we periodically delete any unused plugins or themes.
Nope! The California Democratic Council maintains the Program’s security systems and backups every site on the network on a regular basis.
Since we use a multisite network, all websites on our program are provided with the same plugins and themes as each other. This means that every time a club requests a new plugin/theme, and we download it for them, it also becomes available for everyone else to use.
If you’re not using a theme or plugin, chances are that some other website is. If you’d like to use any plugin on the plugin list, you’re welcome to use any of them.
While this problem can be caused by a variety of reasons, the most likely causes are that:
- Your website does not have a SSL/TLS certificate
- Your website uses HTTP image links, instead of the more secure HTTPS links
- Your website’s SSL/TLS certificate has expired
If your club’s website has this issue, and your club is affiliated with the CDC, please contact our Tech Coordinator.
