Biggest Week of the Year So Far

Greetings Elves!

I am pleased to report that last week saw a huge increase in the number of new elves and new reports tallied in North Pole Flight Command.

This is not entirely a surprise. The week of Thanksgiving usually sees a big increase in interest in tracking Santa for Santa. So many people out there, for whatever reason, decide the week of Thanksgiving that they want to become elves. We give them that chance.

The big questions to be answered are: What kind of elves will they be? Will their reports really help Santa? Can they get enough training behind them in time to really know how to file a quality report?

The answers to those questions only come in the weeks ahead. For now, here are the numbers:

North Pole Tracker Elves: 117,620
Freelance Tracker Elves: 13,639,943

Total Elves Tracking Santa for Santa = 13,757,563

As you can tell, the vast number of new elves are freelance elves. That has a huge bearing over the quality of reports we are seeing in Flight Command. I have met with each elf supervisor to discuss this issue. Most elf supervisors are thrilled to have so many new elves but most are also frustrated because the report data they are receiving is not good.

In fact, elf supervisors have decided to start “culling” elves while in season – meaning they will dismiss those elves who either submit sub-standard reports or no reports at all. They just don’t have time for people who want to be elves in name only. I’m sure they will address this individually in their reports this week.

Elf Moe also reports a number of issues monitoring the Elf Community on SantaTrackers.net. This is not surprising, just disappointing. Knowing and living by the Elf Code is new for many elves and we’re trying to give as many elves a chance as we can.

As far as reports go this week, it was very productive:

Reports from North Pole Tracker Elves: 106,251,961
Reports from Freelance Tracker Elves: 176,824,740

Total Reports from Tracker Elves Worldwide = 283,086,701

This new tally shows that we are 28% to goal, roughly, so far. This is an acceptable performance.

In Flight Command we are grappling with organizing all this information and making it useful for Santa. We are gratified to have new information about places we had nothing on before. It is exciting to see this. Santa has not yet seen some of this information but we have meetings set up with him soon to start presenting it to him.

Elves, keep up the good work. Please focus on your Elf Supervisor. They will tell you what is more important to work on this week.

About this Elf: Elf Roger Star

Roger is an experienced sleigh pilot, designer and flight engineer who has worked the past 42 years as a flight supervisor in the Tracking Department at the North Pole. Previous to that Roger served as a designer in the Research and Development Department during the crucial years of 1947-1974, an era known for breakout designs in Santa’s sleigh that broke long standing speed records. Roger was the lead designer of Santa’s 1968 sleigh, famous for surviving a brutal blizzard in Bavaria. Elf Roger led the tracker elf as International Director of Santa Trackers from its inception as a pilot program in 2016 until 2023. He is now director of North Pole Flight Command.