Agape-Apps: Building Baruch Together

[Landon1285]

I need a field service schedule for the entire year, with different parts showing who conducts for the midweek group (excluding Thursday), the 1st Saturday, and Sunday. It would be nice to also integrate this into NW scheduler.

[Jonathan1]

1 hour ago, Landon1285 said:

I need a field service schedule for the entire year, with different parts showing who conducts for the midweek group (excluding Thursday), the 1st Saturday, and Sunday. It would be nice to also integrate this into NW scheduler.

 

Thank you for your question. I just want to make sure I understand correctly what you mean by:

“a field service schedule for the entire year, with different parts showing who conducts for the midweek group (excluding Thursday), the 1st Saturday, and Sunday.”

Could you please clarify what kind of schedule you are looking for? There are a few possible scenarios, and I want to be sure we build the right thing for you.

 

 

Scenario 1 – One conductor per category (longer periods)
Do you mean:

• One brother assigned to conduct all midweek field service groups (except Thursday) for a certain period (e.g. 2–3 months),

• Another brother assigned for 1st Saturdays (rotating monthly),

• And another rotation for Sundays?

Scenario 2 – Weekly rotation
Or do you mean:

• A weekly schedule for the entire year,

• Where each individual midweek day (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) may have a different conductor,

• And also different brothers assigned each Sunday?

Scenario 3 – Multiple field service groups
Or does your congregation have:

• Several field service groups meeting at the same time,

• Each with its own conductor,

• So you need a schedule per group for the whole year?

If you could describe:

• How many brothers are available to conduct,

• Whether you prefer monthly or quarterly rotations,

• And whether there are multiple field service groups,

then I can suggest the most suitable structure.

Looking forward to your clarification 🙂

 

Sorry, but I don't have direct contact with the NWS developers. I'm also not familiar with their roadmap. I'm gathering requirements for a new system I'm developing, Baruch.

[Landon1285]

56 minutes ago, Jonathan1 said:

 

Thank you for your question. I just want to make sure I understand correctly what you mean by:

“a field service schedule for the entire year, with different parts showing who conducts for the midweek group (excluding Thursday), the 1st Saturday, and Sunday.”

Could you please clarify what kind of schedule you are looking for? There are a few possible scenarios, and I want to be sure we build the right thing for you.

 

 

Scenario 1 – One conductor per category (longer periods)
Do you mean:

• One brother assigned to conduct all midweek field service groups (except Thursday) for a certain period (e.g. 2–3 months),

• Another brother assigned for 1st Saturdays (rotating monthly),

• And another rotation for Sundays?

Scenario 2 – Weekly rotation
Or do you mean:

• A weekly schedule for the entire year,

• Where each individual midweek day (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) may have a different conductor,

• And also different brothers assigned each Sunday?

Scenario 3 – Multiple field service groups
Or does your congregation have:

• Several field service groups meeting at the same time,

• Each with its own conductor,

• So you need a schedule per group for the whole year?

If you could describe:

• How many brothers are available to conduct,

• Whether you prefer monthly or quarterly rotations,

• And whether there are multiple field service groups,

then I can suggest the most suitable structure.

Looking forward to your clarification 🙂

 

Sorry, but I don't have direct contact with the NWS developers. I'm also not familiar with their roadmap. I'm gathering requirements for a new system I'm developing, Baruch.

Scenario 2 – Weekly rotation
Or do you mean:

• A weekly schedule for the entire year,

• Where each individual midweek day (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday) may have a different conductor if the brothers assigned can't make it,

• And also, are different brothers assigned each Sunday? Yes, although I was trying to have a brother do 2 Sundays a month. 

[Jonathan1]

5 hours ago, Landon1285 said:

Scenario 2 – Weekly rotation

 

Yes, this is possible. Just to confirm: you would like a weekly rotation for the entire year where Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday each have their own conductor rotation list. Each week may have different brothers assigned per day. Is that correct?

 

Some questions:

• Should the same brother be allowed to conduct multiple days in the same week?

• Should availability be considered?

• Should the system avoid assigning someone two Sundays in a row?

Those rules determine how complex this becomes.

[Jonathan1]

Visualizing Public Talk Exchanges

One of the most complex planning tasks in many congregations is organizing public talks within a cluster of congregations. Talks must be exchanged, speakers travel between congregations, and schedules must stay balanced throughout the year. Traditionally, this coordination requires spreadsheets, emails, and a lot of manual oversight.

 

Baruch introduces a new concept to simplify this process: the Talk Calendar Matrix, powered by the Smart Talk Rotation Engine. Together they transform public talk coordination from a manual puzzle into a clear, visual, and intelligent planning system.

---

The Challenge of Public Talk Exchanges

In many regions, congregations cooperate within a cluster. They exchange speakers so that each congregation benefits from a variety of public talks.

 

However, this creates several challenges:

• Which congregation sends a speaker where, and when?
• How do you avoid the same speaker visiting the same congregation too often?
• How do you balance travel between congregations fairly?
• How do you respect speaker availability and personal preferences?
• How do you see the overall pattern of exchanges across the year?

 

Without the right tools, coordinators often rely on complex spreadsheets or handwritten notes.

What is missing is a clear visual overview of the entire exchange network.

---

Introducing the Talk Calendar Matrix

The Talk Calendar Matrix is a visual representation of all talk exchanges within a cluster of congregations.

Instead of looking at isolated schedules, the matrix displays the relationships between congregations.

 

Imagine a table where:

Rows represent congregations sending speakers
Columns represent congregations receiving speakers

Each cell in the matrix represents a talk exchange opportunity.

Over time, the matrix fills with scheduled talks.

 

This provides a powerful visual overview:

• Which congregations exchange talks frequently
• Which exchanges still need to be scheduled
• How balanced the cooperation is across the cluster
• Where gaps or conflicts exist

 

The result is something planners have never had before:

A live map of the entire talk exchange network.

---

The Smart Talk Rotation Engine

The matrix provides visibility. The Smart Talk Rotation Engine provides intelligence.

Instead of manually deciding each assignment, the engine evaluates multiple factors automatically.

These include:

Speaker availability

Speakers may define periods when they are unavailable.

Preferred frequency

Some speakers prefer giving talks away only occasionally, for example once per month.

Congregation balance

The system avoids sending the same speaker to the same congregation repeatedly.

Travel fairness

Talk exchanges remain balanced between congregations.

Historical rotation

The engine considers past assignments to keep rotations healthy and varied.

Using these factors, the engine generates candidate assignments and scores them.

The coordinator remains fully in control, but instead of solving the puzzle manually, Baruch provides intelligent suggestions.

---

Making the Invisible Visible

Perhaps the greatest advantage of the Talk Calendar Matrix is that it makes invisible patterns visible.

 

Planners can instantly see:

• clusters that cooperate heavily
• congregations that rarely exchange talks
• imbalances in speaker distribution
• future scheduling opportunities

 

This transforms planning from reactive to strategic.

Instead of asking:

“Who can fill this slot?”

Planners begin asking:

“How can we optimize the exchange network?”

---

A New Way of Thinking About Scheduling

Most scheduling tools treat assignments as isolated events.

Baruch approaches scheduling differently. It views assignments as part of a living network of cooperation.

 

The Talk Calendar Matrix visualizes that network.
The Smart Talk Rotation Engine keeps it balanced.

Whether a cluster contains 3 congregations or 30, the same system works.

 

[Jonathan1]

The Constraint-Based Planning Engine in Baruch

Smarter scheduling for midweek meetings, duties, and congregation tasks

Every congregation relies on careful planning.

Midweek meetings, sound and video duties, literature responsibilities, cleaning schedules, and many other assignments must be organized week after week. For the brothers responsible for this work, scheduling can easily become one of the most time-consuming administrative tasks in the congregation.

 

Baruch approaches this challenge in a fundamentally different way.

Instead of simply filling empty schedule slots, Baruch uses a Constraint-Based Planning Engine. This engine evaluates the real-life rules and limitations within a congregation and generates schedules that respect them automatically.

The result is planning that is more balanced, more accurate, and far less stressful for those organizing the congregation.

---

Why Scheduling Midweek Meetings Is Hard

At first glance, scheduling a meeting seems simple.

You assign a chairman, speakers, readers, and assistants. But in reality, there are many hidden constraints.

For example:

• Someone may already have another assignment that evening

• A publisher might be temporarily unavailable

• Some assignments should not repeat too frequently

• Certain duties must be rotated fairly

• Some publishers may prefer certain types of assignments

Managing all of these conditions manually often leads to:

• repeated assignments

• uneven workload

• scheduling conflicts

• constant adjustments

Many coordinators end up maintaining complex spreadsheets or repeatedly rewriting schedules.

Baruch was designed to remove this burden.

---

What Is Constraint-Based Planning?

Constraint-based planning works differently from traditional scheduling.

Instead of filling assignments one by one, Baruch first gathers all the rules and preferences that affect planning. These are called constraints.

 

The system then calculates a schedule that satisfies as many of these constraints as possible.

This allows the planner to produce schedules that reflect the real structure of congregation life.

---

Two Types of Constraints

The Baruch engine distinguishes between two kinds of constraints.

Hard Constraints

Hard constraints cannot be violated.

Examples include:

• A publisher is unavailable on that date

• Someone is not qualified for a certain assignment

• A publisher cannot have two parts in the same meeting

• A duty requires specific privileges or experience

If a hard constraint is violated, the assignment is simply not allowed.

---

Soft Constraints

Soft constraints represent preferences or policies.

Examples include:

• Avoid assigning the same brother too frequently

• Spread duties evenly across the congregation

• Prefer assigning students in rotation

• Prefer assigning publishers within their service group

Soft constraints help the planner create fair and balanced schedules while still allowing flexibility when necessary.

---

Assignment-Specific Availability

One of the most practical innovations in Baruch is assignment-specific availability.

Instead of a single “Away” status, publishers can define availability per assignment category.

 

For example:

Assignment Type	Availability
Midweek Meeting Parts	Available
Meeting Duties	Available
Public Talks	Avoid
Technical Duties	Available

 

This reflects real-life situations much more accurately.

Someone may be available for meeting parts but unable to handle technical duties during a certain period.

Baruch respects these preferences automatically during planning.

---

A Fair Rotation System

One of the most common frustrations in scheduling is unbalanced assignment rotation.

Without careful tracking, some publishers may receive many assignments while others receive few.

The Baruch planning engine constantly evaluates:

• how recently someone had an assignment

• how often they have served

• whether opportunities are distributed fairly

This ensures that:

• new publishers gain experience

• experienced publishers are not overloaded

• opportunities are distributed evenly

The result is a healthier and more balanced congregation schedule.

 

[BigMAC]

Hi, have you thought about importing different kinds of data into the program you’re developing? NW has the option to export various types of data into different formats. When we got NW, I had already kept the information for public talks in Excel for several years. NW had excellent instructions on how to import that kind of data into their program. I only needed to change a few column headers and then save the file as a CSV. That way I could bring in all the members and all historical and upcoming talks. I hope there will be a similar way for your app, so that people can avoid doing everything manually.

[Jonathan1]

27 minutes ago, BigMAC said:

Hi, have you thought about importing different kinds of data into the program you’re developing?

 

Yes, I’ve prepared baruch for importing data from other formats.

 

When Baruch starts for the first time, you can choose to create a new congregation, but there is also an option to import an existing congregation. The goal is to support importing data from different formats so people don’t have to enter everything manually.

I know that NW can export various kinds of data, which is very helpful. However, since NW Scheduler is a separate project, I don’t expect there will be a dedicated integration with Baruch anytime soon. Because of that, the import in Baruch will likely focus on more general formats like CSV or Excel exports.

 

That way, if someone already has data stored in another program or spreadsheet, it should still be possible to bring most of that information into Baruch without re-entering everything.

 

I explained how this works in this previous post. https://jwtalk.net/topic/62578-agape-apps-building-baruch-together/?do=findComment&comment=1086360

 

[Jonathan1]

I plan to release a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of Baruch in the coming weeks.

The functionality includes creating a demo congregation, including test data, and maintaining publishers.

 

The MVP will include the following features:

• Congregation maintenance
• Adding a Circuit Overseer
• Meeting times
• Zoom meeting details
• Publisher information
• Family organization

The initial release will be in desktop format on Windows. This is easiest for me, as it's also my development environment.

I will also release versions for Android and iOS shortly thereafter. This will require a bit more work and additional investment in Apple hardware. For the iOS and macOS versions, I need to compile XCode on Apple hardware, which I don't have yet.

 

The MVP version will allow for basic testing. I will then gradually release more features.

[Jonathan1]

Supporting Baruch: looking for a used Mac

 

Due to personal circumstances, I’m currently running this project on a very limited budget and with minimal resources. To keep costs low, I rely heavily on open-source development tools and environments to avoid licensing fees.

 

For iOS and macOS support, however, Apple hardware is required to compile with Xcode. Running macOS in a virtual machine on non-Apple hardware is not allowed under Apple’s licensing terms, and as a Christian I want to respect Caesar’s laws and do things properly.

Because of this, I need access to a Mac system (Mac mini, MacBook, or iMac) to build and test the iOS/macOS versions of Baruch. Even an older model would work well — for example a Mac mini (M1, 2020) would already be more than sufficient for Xcode and iOS simulators and works very well with Pair-to-Mac builds from Visual Studio.

 

If anyone happens to have older or unused Apple hardware they no longer need and would be willing to sell it at a low cost (or possibly donate it) to support the development of Baruch, I would be very grateful.

 

Thank you for considering it and for supporting the project.

[foghorn]

On 3/6/2026 at 6:47 AM, Jonathan1 said:

This engine evaluates the real-life rules and limitations within a congregation and generates schedules that respect them automatically.

I was thinking about the term 'real-life rules' here. Sounds good in theory, but as always - "its not that simple". Some flexibility is needed. This is especially true in smaller congregations with fewer qualified servants.

 

REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE: A brother is assigned the video duty at mid-week meeting this week. The rule would say he should not be assigned a part on the meeting. Yet this week he also has a part on the ministry school. But this is not a serious conflict because his part on the school does not require any action from the video brother. So he simple leaves the video station, handles his part on the school, and returns. Or in another scenario, the video brother could handle a part by asking another qualified brother to fill in for a few minutes.

[Jonathan1]

1 hour ago, foghorn said:

I was thinking about the term 'real-life rules' here. Sounds good in theory, but as always - "its not that simple". Some flexibility is needed. This is especially true in smaller congregations with fewer qualified servants.

 

I completely agree that rules in scheduling software should not be too rigid. Congregations often have to work with a limited number of qualified brothers, and sometimes a situation that looks like a conflict in theory is perfectly workable in practice.

 

My intention for Baruch is therefore not to create hard restrictions, but rather “soft rules” that warn the scheduler about potential conflicts.

For example, if a brother has video duty and also a ministry school assignment, the system could show a warning like:

 

“Possible conflict detected – but this may still be workable depending on the situation.”

The scheduler would then still be free to continue if needed.

This keeps the system helpful without taking away the flexibility that smaller congregations often need.

[Jonathan1]

Managing Families in Baruch

In a congregation it is often helpful to look at publishers not only as individuals, but also as families. Baruch therefore includes a family overview that helps elders quickly see which brothers and sisters belong to the same household.

 

At the same time, family situations can change frequently. Children grow up, couples marry, someone moves to another congregation, or a family member may not be a believer. Because of this, Baruch uses a flexible approach that allows families to update automatically while still giving elders the possibility to adjust things when needed.

Automatic family detection

Baruch can also determine the type of family based on the members in the household. For example:

• One person → Single

• Two adults → Couple

• Parents with children → Family

• One parent with children → Single-parent family

This helps elders quickly understand the situation of a household without having to manually classify every family.

Choosing the family head

When a family is created, Baruch will automatically suggest a family head, usually based on:

• an adult member

• age and role in the household

This can always be changed if needed.

Adjustments when necessary

Sometimes a situation requires a manual adjustment. For instance:

• the family type should be different

• the family head should be someone else

• additional notes should be recorded

For these cases, Baruch allows elders to add family notes or overrides, ensuring that the information reflects the real-life situation in the congregation.