How to pick unique values from a list with criteria

[feltcherandrew]

Hi -

I currently have a spreadsheet that is matching people up monthly to have short 15 minute meetings with each other in order to get more interaction between members of disparate work teams. The number of people participating in the meetings has grown and managing the pairings has become pretty complex. What I would like to find a way to do is somewhat automate the pairings based on a simple set of rules though a solution has been elusive.

What I have currently is this:
A participant list along (participation varies each month since it's voluntary)
A list of the participants managers
A list of the historical pairings

Rules for pairings:
Current month pairing should not be the person's direct manager (Manager Name below)
Current month pairing should not be the person themself (obvious )
Current month pairing should not be any of the previous month's pairings (Mon1 / Mon2 Pairing Name below)
A person cannot be matched up with more than one person in a month (Mon1 / Mon2 Pairing columns below should not contain duplicate names within the column)

Is there a way via a formula or macro to automate this somewhat? I've been experimenting around with combinations of MIN/IF as well as some Do Until loops but apparently I stink at both of them because I cannot wrap my head around how to get it done. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Currently I have a spreadsheet this look similar to below and for ease of use let's assume all the participants (Participant Name column) will be participating this month:

Participant #	Participant Name	Manager #	Manager Name	Mon1 Pairing#	Mon1 Pairing Name	Mon2 Pairing#	Mon2 Pairing Name
1	Sue	5	Bill	2	John	3	Mary
2	John	4	Dan	1	Sue	6	Sally
3	Mary	6	Sally	4	Dan	1	Sue
4	Dan	7	Phil	3	Mary
5	Bill	8	Ed
6	Sally	9	Mike			2	John

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