About

Problem #1

Synagogue Congregations and related groups hold prayer services (minyanim) on a regular schedule. Each congregation manages its minyanim according to sunrises and sunsets and its particular situations. The schedule is also driven by Shabbat, weekends and religious and public holiday considerations. There are also special days, such as Rosh Hodesh, on which the minyan times are usually altered. Furthermore, there can be special occasions, such as a brit milah, when the congregation would like to alter the minyan time. Therefore, it's not practical to create a "one size fits all" minyan time scheduler. A second issue is that there are congregations which have challenges putting together a regular minyan. Yet a third issue concerns travelers who wish to find a minyan whilst away from home.

Currently, some solutions exist which attempt to follow the "one size fits all" maxim and enable anyone to change the schedules.

The Solution
To address the above we have created MinyanTime.com, an inexpensive web based service which enables each Congregation to setup and manage it's own personalized MinyanTime schedule. This publicizes the schedule to members and visitors alike and also acts as a PR piece for the congregation.

MinyanTime.com provides each congregation with the ability to configure and manage it's own Minyan Time Schedule.
This Schedule can be displayed as a separate web page, or be embedded as part of the congregation's website, and it can be displayed on a local Kiosk at the congregation's physical site. It automatically adjusts the display to usage on mobile devices, such as a smartphone.

MinyanTime.com automatically shows the Minyan Time schedule for this week and for a number of following weeks, as defined by the congregation's administrator. Based on the administrator's choices, it will display sunrise/sunset times, candle lighting times, weekly Torah portion, special events which influence a specific minyan time, and similar relevant pieces of information.

Members and visitors alike can create personalized reminders or ticklers. The scheduler will send these either as an email or as a text message, based on the user's choice. This is configurable by the receiver to be done once or on regular basis. These reminders can also assist the Gabbaim to remind minyan attendees, if the congregation has challenges in that area.

Security

Both the management of the Minyan time Schedule and the reminder process is securely protected so that other parties cannot alter them.

To Summarize

The Minyan Time Scheduler is configurable, flexible, easy to manage and secure. It requires the administrator to insert only the geographical coordinates of their location, daylight saving parameters, congregation minyan time specifications and their display requirements. This is a one time effort and will need to be visited only when a change is required or when special events arise that override the regular minyan schedule. It will also be multi-lingual.

Problem #2 - Maintaining A Minyan

Prayer Houses need to manage their Minyanim (Quorums) to make sure that there are at least 10 post barmitzvas to form the required minimum number. This is often a challenge in modern times, with people having varied personal schedules and obligations.

The Solution to Problem #2

To address this we added to MinyanTime.com, the ability to manage Minyanaires (minyan attendees), Minyanaire Profiles which define for each Minyanaire when they commit to attend, and the ability to Plan Minyan Attendance in advance.

Minyantime also has a definable and flexible method of sending SMS or email reminders to all the signed up minyanaires.

MinyanTime.com thereby provides a complete solution for Managing the task of scheduling minyanim in an organized and simple method. It can even be maintained using a Mobile Device