Monthly Update - April 2024
Happy May! We hope your April was a blast, and if you too are in the nonprofit sector, we hope you have wrapped up all your year end reporting (talk about a blast! Where does the time go?)
We started our new fiscal year by delivering 375 computers and laptops and have 8 new organizations who requested tech from us. If you know of other orgs needing equipment, be sure to send them our way!
At the start of the month, we welcomed 3 new interns River, Ben and Affan! We hope you learn a lot and have a wonderful internship.
Thank you to all of our donors who have started our fiscal year off with a bang with their contributions, including TELUS, NTT DATA, Leavitt Machinery, City of Burnaby, and a number of Government of Canada departments. At the beginning of April, save the dates were sent via email for our annual Donor Recognition event. Formal invitations will be sent shortly, so be sure to keep an eye on your inbox, including the spam folder! This year's event will be extra special, as we celebrate our 200,000th computer distributed. We hope to see you there!
Last year’s Donor Recognition Event
On April 18 and 19 we attended the Decoda Literacy conference where we set up a booth and got the chance to chat with non-profits about the work we do at BC Tech and how our programs can be a great help for them and their clients. We were also able to participate in the vendor prize draw. We donated a laptop, which was actually used as a grand prize! The winner was Christine Lewandowski from the Northwest Territories Literacy Council. While BC Tech does not directly serve the Northwest Territories, our friends over at Smart Communities Society are the CFS affiliate for that region. There are different CFS affiliates for each province and territory across Canada! To find one near you check out the full directory.
Michael Han completed his internship with us at the end of March, and on his last day we were able to sit down with him and learn more about his experience! Thank you Micheal for your insights and we wish you all the best with your future! Watch his Where Will They Go? interview here.
Lastly, we got a chance to catch up with our Warehouse Lead, Bo, and learn more about him and what he likes most about his job.
Meet Our Team
Warehouse Lead: Bo Diao
What is your role at BC Tech and what do you do on a daily basis?
I am the Warehouse Lead at BC Tech who’s responsible for processing all the donations that come in. This includes receiving the equipment, quarantining it in our Fort Knox until every piece of data is securely erased or destroyed, and barcoding all inventory into our database for donor tracking and tax receipt issuance. Most days I also mentor volunteers, teaching them how I process donations, diagnose computers, and properly recycle computers, parts, and materials. I then share my experiences with computers with everybody at my workplace.
Tell me about your previous roles and experiences prior to coming to BC Tech.
I have taken on similar roles in both private and non-profit settings, and am interested in history and global issues, particularly pollution and environmental degradation.
What do you like about working at BC Tech?
The people here are really nice. The organization is well-managed with every individual thoughtfully taken good care of. We reduce e-waste here.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
I like to repair things. I enjoy reading and classical music. I like to play tennis.
Do you have any interesting fun facts?
As I process dozens of computers with various kinds of problems on a typical day, I often repair multiple computers on a daily basis. Which means together with our volunteers, we repair almost a thousand computers a year!
What’s the best piece of professional advice you ever received?
From our Executive Director Mary-Em: It’s good to be busy. What good is it if I am idling with nothing to do?
Your Donations Matter.
