Have you committed to be a local arrangements chair for a workshop
or large conference?  My condolences.  I just went through this
for IPSN 2007 at MIT, and have learned a lot that other LACs might
find useful in future.  The process below was developed with the
help of my wonderful administrative assistant, Bryt Bradley.

-- Seth Teller, April 2007


GREAT ASSISTANT
  Make sure you have a competent assistant, and meet with him/her
  regularly.  Use a Discuss, Delegate, Deploy model:  both of you
  discuss; you delegate; s/he deploys.


TASK MATRIX
  Make a matrix with each event (workshop session, conference session, 
  food break, banquet) as a row, chronologically ordered (i.e. with
  time advancing downward), and each vendor/provider (caterer, A/V, 
  easels, facilities, etc.) as a column.  Then fill in every cell in 
  this grid with the concrete task (with details) that the vendor will
  have to perform:
    WHAT they need to do (e.g. food break for 200 people)
    WHEN they need to do it
    WHERE they need to do it
  The left-most column can consist of entries, one per row, specifying
  WHO in your organization is responsible for making each event happen.

  DO NOT FORGET CONTACT INFORMATION:
    Get a verified mobile number for each vendor, and add it to the grid.

  DO NOT FORGET THE "BREAKDOWN" TASKS:
    If you have a task to fetch 50 power strips from X and lay them out, 
    add a symmetric task to pick up 50 power strips and return them to X.

  DO NOT FORGET EXTRA CUSTODIAL SUPPORT:
    If you have 200+ people having refreshment breaks in a small area,
    they generate much more trash than local receptacles can accommodate.

  DO NOT FORGET BUILDING ACCESS:
    If tutorials or workshops happen on the weekends, arrange for
    building and room doors to be unlocked at the appropriate times.

  COLOR CODE the matrix:
    RED wherever info is missing;
    GREEN wherever task is assigned and confirmed;
    BLUE wherever task is responsibility of some other organizer.

  Now you can read off the columns of the matrix:  each is a
  time-ordered list of tasks needed from a particular vendor.

  And each grid block (consisting of several rows per event: setup, 
  operation, teardown) is owned by a particular task coordinator.

  Then SHARE THE GRID to all other organizers and get them to 
  supply the missing info, and confirm their responsibilities.
  Use discretion in allocating write permissions to others, i.e.,
  grant read permissions to everyone involved, but grant write
  permissions only to those whom you trust not to screw things up.

  => Do this repeatedly until there is NO RED in the grid.
  

STUDENT VOLUNTEERS
  Get each other organizer to recommend one or two student volunteers.
  Give them the "miscellaneous" jobs from the task grid.
  SEND A GLOBAL TASK LIST TO ALL VOLUNTEERS AND THEIR ADVISORS.

  => HAVE EACH VOLUNTEER "ACK" TASK AND SUPPLY A MOBILE PHONE NUMBER
  WHICH SHOULD BE ENTERED INTO THE GRID IN CASE PEOPLE GO AWOL.


FINANCES
  Overestimate by 5-10% to account for unanticipated expenses.
  Establish and fund a local child account which vendors can invoice.


AT THE EVENT
  Make sure to acknowledge at the conference everyone who helped.


AFTERMATH
  Use any extra conference funds to reward the heroes of the event.