A First for the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club: Its Own Website

The La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club boasts more than 300 members, banners declaring it a local Club of the Year and a monthly program of high-profile speakers.

What it didn’t have until a month ago was its own website.

“My son Damien is helping [club board member] Toni [Lopez] with the website,” club President Fernando Garcia said of lamesafoothillsdemocraticclub.com—revealed to members April 3 at the La Mesa Community Center.

Garcia is a semiretired landscape contractor and Loyola University of Los Angeles graduate with a degree in business administration with an emphasis on management.

But his club—founded in August 1984 by Claude and Beverly Cissirer—hadn’t managed to launch its own site until late March.

The site, using WordPress blog software, notes that “the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club is the second-largest club in San Diego County. The club was awarded 2008 Club of the Year by the San Diego County Democratic Party’s Council of Clubs.”

The website will augment its monthly club newsletter, The Progressive Voice, which contains information about upcoming speakers, campaign events and editorials.

Garcia’s ambitions for the site?

“I hope the website will give our club more exposure in the East County and be a vehicle to disseminate Democratic values to the public,” said Garcia, who lives with his wife, Jan, in the Calavo Gardens section of Mt. Helix.

But the newsletter remains a priority.

“We need to expand the number of members who contribute to our newsletter,” Lopez wrote on the site. “I’m inviting any club member to consider writing articles or sending in items of interest you find for the newsletter. Letters, e-mails and short comments or news would be welcome. You chose the topic and it will be considered.”