Please pass this to the new AI-seminar student organizer
This is what I did before.
She/He doens't have to follow it closely

Announcement:

1) At beginning:
 Create a page like this http://www-cse.ucsd.edu/~elkan/259/
 or http://www-ai.ucsd.edu/seminar/airg-w2007.xml

2) Approx. 1 week before the talk 
 collect abstract from the speaker.
 update webpage
 send out announcement to ai@cs.ucsd.edu

3) Approx. 1 day before the talk 
 send out the second announcement.


Pizza:
 0) Alway order at least one veggie pizza.
 People(Gary et. al.) will blame on you if there's no veggie.

 1) Always place the order one day earlier.
 Most pizza restaurants start to take order at 11am.
 There are situations that almost every pizza restaurant around 
 the campus receives large quantity of order and then is unable 
 to deliver same day order before 12pm.


 2) Order online. (I use papajohns.com)
 No need to wait on the phone. Clear and concise menu is available on their website.
 Automatically retrieve phone/address/time etc...
 And the most convenient. They provide "repeat last order" function
 on the web. One click is enough to finish all the tedious and routine process. 

 The other thing you can do is setup a ``static order'' that comes
 automatically every week. However, you have to cancel the order if
 the seminar gets cancelled.

 3) Pay with credit card
 Easy to include tips(5-10%) in the bill (so the seminar fund pays the tip).
 Easy to do final accounting on the banks' web interface. (eg. search for papajohns on transactions)

 4) Ask them to bring at least 20 plates.
 Otherwise they simply don't give you plates.


 5) Collect the receipts for reimbursement.
 I usually write date on the receipts and staple them with the printout of seminar webpage.
 Then submit the claim to your corresponding assistant.
 The reimbursement usually comes the next month on check in your mailbox
 after submission.

-Tingfan