Google Map for small group planning

Inspiration

We needed a way to divide our church fellowship into several small groups based on where members live, to make weekly gatherings more practical and efficient. The challenge was organizing these groups in a way that minimized travel time, while also being sensitive to privacy concerns.

What it does

This tool helps organizers assign members to small groups and designate a host family for each group. It calculates the driving distance and travel time for each member to their group’s host family, and visualizes all groups on a map to help with planning.

How we built it

We used the Google Maps API to calculate distances and driving times between members and their group’s host. The tool then displays this data on a custom Google Map, showing where each group is located and how members are spread out.

Challenges we ran into

A key challenge was privacy. Some users were concerned about their actual home addresses being visible on the shared Google Sheet or map.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

To address the privacy issue, we created a system to automatically replace real addresses with “obscure addresses” — randomized locations within a 0.5-mile radius of the actual address. These obscure addresses maintain accurate travel calculations but help protect users' privacy.

What we learned

Seeing all groups mapped out provides a big-picture view that helps us identify patterns and opportunities to improve group assignments — like adding a new group or redistributing members to reduce commute times.