2026 SPARC National Conference

Budget Quest is back - this time with a staff hiring focus! Dive into an interactive simulation with others where you’ll be handed a budget, a program, and the challenge to spend smart and win big. How can you optimize your hiring needs and spending strategies? Debate the merits of age and experience for various roles as you race to ensure legal compliance and maximum impact. How does the cost of additional training and certifications impact your community and your payroll budget? What specialized programs are worth their staffing and certification costs? When is a “warm body” all that you really need? We’ll share tips and lessons learned (sometimes the hard way!) from decades of summer staff hiring along the way. Will your program come out on top of the bottom line?

This session is a unique opportunity to bring your Business Office partners to explore the “other” side of summer staff hiring!

Failure can drive growth, but in camp and auxiliary settings, staff mistakes can affect program success and reputation. This session explores how to balance support and autonomy—when to step in and when to let staff struggle productively. Using real-life examples, we’ll highlight best practices for “contained failure” that promote learning without compromising outcomes. Participants will also examine strategies to build resilience and confidence by leveraging moments of challenge. Framed through reflective leadership, the session invites attendees to assess their own leadership and coaching styles and consider how to use them to support staff development and maximize performance.