Nowadays it is important to have a cohesive structure within a conference organizer's team so that where certain responsibilities fall onto are clearly defined.
The details of how decisions are made, or who is responsible should be handled independently based upon the needs of the actual persons running the organization, however we require that several persons with key responsibilities and roles be available at all times.
A single "chair" person MUST exist that can either be the person with ultimate ruling power / ultimately accountable for matters related to the conference in an organization with a centralized administration model, or be the person who can be the tie-breaker if using a comittee model.
TODO: I feel like there are more roles that should exist in all types of builderscon. Add more later
Most likely your builderscon will require the help of at least a handful of volunteers to run. How you manage your team will no doubt vary depending on your location, financial situation, and many other conditions. Therefore items on this section are not necessary rules, but just suggestions regarding how to treat your volunteers
The biggest mistake we have seen regarding the treatment of volunteers is when you only treat them as mere "resources". Instead, we would like to recommend that you treat them more like "extremely helpful attendees". The idea is for them to have fun: you still may need to ask them to work hard, but that doesn't mean you are free to just use their time. Be prepared so that the volunteers can help you run your event without worrying about other things.
Here are somethings to keep in mind:
Usually your volunteers are clueless how to run a conference. It is your responsibility to prepare manuals and directions with enough information so that they don't feel like they are at complete loss. Be clear what you expect out of them, like meeting times, hours of operation, expected expenses, etc.
Always factor in time and budget for food/drinks. Apetites vary from person to person, but it's always a good idea to have enough food around.
Being volunteers, it is probably not unreasonable to expect them to pay for transportation to the venue/meetings. But you should not rely on them to pay for much more than that.
If you have expenses that you expect the volunteers to pay, do bring it up front so they know what they are getting into.
Always remember that they are aready paying enough for you by offering their time and effort.
If you have your volunteers help you only to let them go home immediately afterwards, their experience will just be that: they came, they worked, they went home (tired, no less). Always remember that you should make their experience fun.
If you can afford to do so, create time for some activities before or after the event, a drinkup, a barbecue, or whatever else suit your situation. This is also a great way to build your team. We recommend that you have a gathering before the event. This will make sure that your volunteers know about each other before hand.
The volunteer team that you gather is probably a one-time thing -- i.e. you will probably never have the same team again. Do yourself a favor, and always take a group photo. This is a subtle but significant gesture, as your volunteers will be able to look back and feel that they were part of a team.
Note that if you have a multi-day conference, it is important that you take photos EVERY day, because your team WILL be different from day to day.