Graham and Kirsty look back on 2020 with Alistair Forbes and Joanna Allen. Wishing all a peaceful and safe Christmas and New Year. See you all in 2021.

A chance connection on LinkedIn brought the amazing work of Australia's AIME Mentoring programme to the STA's attention. Kirsty McIntosh met Brenden Newton across an 11 hour time difference to find out more. This is the first in a periodic series of tech-for-good stories from around the world.

Kirsty McIntosh takes a tour around the motivations and experiences of 6 graduates of Scotland's Digital Skills Academy, CodeClan and who have all volunteered their time and new skills to the Scottish Tech Army.

Graham and Kirsty chat to Eirini Komninou, an STA volunteer and data scientist who brought the concept of sonification to the Covid-19 Dashboard team. Eirini's story is a classic example of the success of diverse thinking, teamwork and determination.

Alistair Forbes joins Kirsty in the co-hosts chair as we return to the scene of last week's Town Hall announcements about the future of the Scottish Tech Army. Volunteers Stacy Munro, Jean Ferguson and Brian Baglow give their thoughts on an event that really showed both the scale and the strength of the STA.

Graham and Kirsty talk to Joyce Murray about how a realisation that we are all just one decision away from getting into trouble led her to set up a chocolate making business that works with women who've brushed up against the justice system. During lockdown she asked for help from the STA who managed to help in more ways than she imagined.

Plus - there's a big announcement at the start of this episode.

Stewart Lewis of the National Library of Scotland and STA volunteer Project Manager Alec Davies join Graham and Kirsty to talk about how a team of STA volunteers worked together with the NLS to bring https://opentexts.world online during lockdown. 8 million digital texts are now available to anyone who wants or needs them, with about 32 million left to go. There's some deviation into talk of Hibs and Edinburgh Rugby and we get Alec's view on good Project Management - a topic for another episode.

It's World Mental Health Day. We brought together one of Crossreach's amazing counsellors, Julie Reekie, with Scottish Tech Army volunteers, Rab Mungall, Kirsty McIntosh and Graham Johnston to share stories of lockdown, managing the new work from home normal and how the STA has provided purpose and a sense of belonging in the most difficult of years.

If you need to work through your experiences, here are more links to those who can help:

https://breathingspace.scot/

https://clearyourhead.scot/

The Scottish Tech Army had quite a week - 5 months old, awards, partnerships and press galore. Graham Johnston and Kirsty McIntosh catch up with Alistair to hear all about it.

Listeners finally get the introduction to Graham Johnston they and he deserve and Kirsty to talks to STA volunteer Josh Havens, coming from a non-tech background, the support he's received from fellow volunteers and the impact the charities he's helped have had on his outlook.

Agenor Technology is an Edinburgh based IT consultancy. Several employees, some furloughed, some not have been giving their time and experience to the Scottish Tech Army. Graham Johnston and Kirsty McIntosh find out more about the business and the impact of Covid 19 from their CEO Gary Montgomery and hear from volunteers Kirsty Patterson and Andy Bassett. If you want to know what collaborating with the STA does for your personal development and your business, tune in.

Kirsty McIntosh and Graham Johnston chat to Tanya Anderson of Crossreach Counselling Scotland and the STA's Luke Woollett about their work to bring Crossreach's services into the digital age.

Mhairi Cochrane, CEO of Lilypads tells us about the origins of the organisation, the impact of the pandemic on their operations and how much she enjoyed working with the Scottish Tech Army to help resolve some of the challenges they were facing.

STA Volunteers Luke Woollett and Donal Stewart discuss the launch of the new Covid-19 Dashboard for Scotland, how it came into being and why it's both an important project for our volunteers and valuable tool for the public.

Introducing our new co-host, Graham Johnston, some music and the story of how the Scottish Tech Army worked with VSA to produce an inventory  system that's making a real difference every day to that organisation.

We talk to Maria Hamilton about community building at break-neck speed and Lisa Dempsey about resourcing for both skill and aspiration.

This week Kirsty talks to STA volunteer Willie Bell & Chris Mantle; Senior Food & Health Development Worker @EdinComFood. Also on the Pod, Andrew Rendle shares his experience in the STA band 'White Striped Donuts'!

Izzie Kirkpatrick tells us how listening to her Dad got her to join the Scottish Tech Army and how mentoring has helped her confidence and let her see alternative career opportunities. Rhi Batstone and Ric Clark share their experience of the STA's first 'Homebrew Challenge', unexpectedly presenting to Scottish Government and the generosity of fellow volunteers.

Our first episode is a chat with Scottish Tech Army founders Alistair Forbes and Pete Jaco. We talk about the meteoric rise of the STA, how it feels to be part of something that's having an immediate effect on those we're helping and touch on the plans and hopes for the future.