Answers to Questions

Hi all! What follows are questions I received after today’s chat and the answers I want you all to know. Some of these questions may seem kind of simple for some of you but I am glad a few elves were brave enough to ask them of me. I think we have a lot of newer elves out there who are kind of wingin’ it and trying their best – but maybe we haven’t done as good a job training them as we hoped.

It also dawns on me that many are just now coming back to Christmas and tracking Santa for Santa. That is okay, too. As Elf Supervisors we have to remind ourselves that most elves working remotely have lives they need to attend to that is more than what we have to deal with. I work every day for Santa and you guys don’t get that opportunity. So, especially for those of you back in school, the time you get to know and do your elf work is kind of limited.

So please be kind in your response to these questions, if they seem basic to you. I want all of our elves to understand what Santa needs of you and how we (meaning the Elf Supervisors) are here to help you. Here are the questions and answers:

Q: Where do I find out where you leave instructions? I don’t know what to do as an elf and it isn’t clear to me where to find information?
A: Okay, this is a great question. I think one of the things made clear in our chat today was that many elves seemed to be saying they don’t know what to do right now. As that question was being asked in my mind I was thinking, “what? haven’t you been reading my posts?” Well, I think you’re telling me that’s not clear to you. So, here’s what you need to do. First of all, try to log in to the website here at least once a week, going forward. The first thing you should do it go to the News page – which looks like this:

Any news from Sector 5 is going to be headlined with the same post template – ours is red with a green stripe at the bottom that says “Sector 5 News”. Each sector has their own color and headline. For example, here is the post template for this post:

Whenever I post anything it shows up on our Sector 5 page, on the Elf Wall and in the Santa Tracker Herald Star with this same post image. You should check out all of these pages linked here if you really haven’t done so before. We try very hard to get information out to you through all these resources but it is up to you to get logged in and visiting often.

Q: My account was “retired” because I haven’t logged in. How do I get it back?
A: Yes, Elf Moe talked about this earlier this week. If you go 90 days without logging in your account is “retired”. That means it is basically locked down for security purposes. Elf Moe can unlock it if you send either him or me a note. If you got longer than 90 days – your account could be deleted (many already have) and you won’t be able to get it back. This is policy and I can’t do anything about it.

Q: What is my job?
A: Our job is to “track Santa for Santa”. To do that we try to accomplish these three things:

1. Learn the Elf Code, try to recruit more people to Become an Elf
2. Provide the North Pole with local information that will be helpful to Santa when he takes flight
3. Track Santa when he flies and respond when North Pole Flight Command asks for something.

Right now, we’re working a lot on #1 and #2. In terms of reports, I’m asking right now that you send in each week a local weather report for your area. You can literally copy and paste a link to a local weather news site or even just gab the text from one and put it in your report. Weather reports are used by Flight Command to plan test flights AND to learn weather patterns in your local area. That’s why sending them in each week is important. What day should you send this in? Really, it doesn’t matter. But I prefer you send it in on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, if that’s okay.

Other reports will be asked of you at odd times. Sometimes I want them for the database of information I’m building about the Sector for Santa, sometimes I ask for stuff that Flight Command wants to know.

One report that is becoming really important is the Local Christmas Report. You’re going to want to get familiar with this one because I’m going to ask for it a lot.

That’s about it for now, guys. More stuff to come, I promise. Thanks for all your hard work. If you have additional questions, please ask them in the comments below and I will answer them.

About this Elf: Elf Pinky

Elf Pinky was recruited from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1992 and has since served as an instructor in sleigh flight theory at the North Pole Institute of Aviation. She worked very hard to earn her elf credentials, working a second shift first as a tool repair technician in Santa’s workshop and then as an engineer in the Wrapping Department designing wrapping machines. Pinky in recent years was a recruiter and trainer of sleigh test pilots and flies under the call sign Barracuda. Last year she served as a Flight Operations Director and demonstrated outstanding judgment and maturity in her duties supervising more than 400 elves, pilots, reindeer handlers and sleigh freighters.