Tom Noyes, The Wizard Behind Ashby Village’s Computer Systems
By Karin Evans
When an Ashby Village member puts in a request for service, the request is posted online and emailed to potential volunteers through the Volunteer Connect platform. Then a volunteer answers the request, also online, gets all the information needed, and does what needs doing. Afterwards, the fulfilled request is noted and the volunteer hours are registered. Although the process works easily and might appear simple, it’s actually a sophisticated system. Based on moving the Village’s data to Salesforce, Volunteer Connect has been heavily modified to be unique to Ashby Village needs. And all the changes over the last two-plus years have been thanks to a techno wizard behind the scenes, an Ashby Village volunteer and former Salesforce software engineer named Tom Noyes.
Ashby Village couldn’t have found a better volunteer for the task.
“I was introduced to computers in 1964 by my early mathematics mentor at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan,” says Tom “I did my graduate study in Mathematics at California Institute of Technology, graduating with a Masters in 1970. As one of the few people at that time who knew anything about computers, I was assigned to assist with the undergraduate courses requiring use of the computers of those days.
“After teaching a few years, I started working professionally in Software Engineering (aka programming) at Burroughs in 1974,” Tom continues, “followed by General Motors, a succession of unsuccessful startups, and finally Salesforce for my last seven years before retiring as a Principal Software Engineer in 2016.”
Leaving General Motors in 1985, Tom, his wife Mary and their two children, moved from Michigan to the Bay Area, first to Concord, then to San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill—where Tom was on the board of the Telegraph Hill Dwellers and a member of North Beach Village in its early days.
“I helped there mostly with social events,” says Tom. “Both my wife and I have participated in non-profit work throughout our careers, as time permitted, in many organizations. Usually my volunteer work has been background helping with organization and support – and a pair of hands at events. I often characterize my services as a worker bee.”
In 2016, Tom and his family moved to Rockridge. “In 2018, I was looking for a local Village movement and found Ashby Village.” Says Tom “I mentioned my Salesforce experience, and the rest is history! Within a week I had heard from Pat and Andy.” Ashby Village, luckily, had found just the worker bee it needed.
Ashby Village, with the help of a consulting firm, had moved their members and volunteer system off Club Express in 2017 and into a Salesforce Non-Profit Success pack so they could add the Volunteers for Salesforce feature to support volunteers. The Salesforce system provided flexibility they did not have in the CE system, particular with Volunteer management and scheduling. However, the cost of continuing with professional consulting was considerable, too expensive to sustain long term and while mostly complete, still was missing features Ashby needed. That’s when Tom stepped in to take over for the work of the consulting firm.
“The goal was to get the Ashby Village staff started and then they would use normal Salesforce features, not requiring significant technical skill.” Tom says. “They have done so remarkably well, especially Pat Carvalho, the Operations Director whom I’ve worked closely with. However, there were many things they wanted to do going forward that required more professional programming skills. That is where I have been able to step in–primarily to automate processes to free up office volunteer staff from repetitive tasks. That is where computers excel, after all!”
Tom adds that the shift in systems for Ashby Village didn’t come without challenges. “Every customer implementation of common computer system that is adapted to their unique needs has challenges,“ he says. “That is why I have had a career for 50 years. Helping Ashby Village also helps me keep using those skills and learning more.”
Tom’s volunteer work ethic is such that even while living in Italy for five months, he continued to support Ashby Village (virtually) every week “This is an example of the dedication he brings to us,” says Pat, “We are so appreciative!”
Tom’s next project, to be tackled, he hopes, with plenty of input from others, will be Ashby Village’s new website. (Volunteers with expertise in visual design are invited to step up.)
“I have often been asked what I do for a living and I have told people Software Engineer,” Tom says. “But I have also used the metaphor of being a plumber. I do not work much on the visual part of computer systems, but what happens behind the scenes. What I do right you should never see – because it just works right – as you expect. But it is a mess when I goof up!”