Classroom Sign-Ups Surge

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After a tip off from Elf Moe, I looked at the numbers and sure enough, it appears sign-ups by school teachers are surging. This happens every September.

Spurred on by a post at SantaUpdate.com last week for questions from teachers it stands to reason why so many are finding their way here to SantaTrackers.net to track Santa for Santa as a class. Elf Moe tells me he is working with Elf Max to reach out to these special groups of tracker elves.

School teachers have long embraced news from the North Pole as presented at SantaUpdate.com. Elves Frank and Crash are soon to release the annual question-and-answer North Pole Podcast episode that feature questions these school classes send in.

Elf Crash reports that questions so far this year have come mostly from Sector 5, which is normal, but this year it appears they have heard from many in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and from classes in the US Virgin Islands, Iceland and from Fiji.

Elf Crash expressed concern that the episode will run a little long because of the number of questions received.

We’re not sure yet when that episode will be released but Elf Crash says they have needed a few days in the studio to record the conversation.

Elf Moe says he expects the sign-ups from teachers to continue to escalate through Christmas.

Roof Reports by the End of September

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Ok, Elves. After discussions with Elf Roger Star we have determined that the best plan is to get all roof reports in Sector 3 completed by the end of the month.

This is for all roofs in all areas of Sector 3. This goes out to all elves everywhere in Europe and Africa.

This is the earliest we have ever targeted this for completion. The roof report is found at this link.

Bear in mind, YOU might see a local need for additional roof reports before Santa flies. And that’s fine. You can send them in at any time.

But please remember our guidelines for doing roof reports. You must remain safe. STAY ON THE GROUND. If you suspect damage that needs closer inspection, please report that to Flight Command in your report and we will send a team of elves to your location to do an in-air inspection, by sleigh or by drone, depending upon the availability of equipment and elf power in our sector.

The sooner we can act on these situations the better.

Thank you.

Status Report Requested

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Howdy Elves in Sector 5,

I am pleased to report that Sector 5’s regional tracking center in St. Nicholas, Minnesota is now fully operational. We’re open for business completely.

Our thanks to the crack crew of elves from Flight Command and Santa’s Workshop for getting us up and running.

All things considered, we feel like we are in good shape.

Some of you are writing in asking “what about us?” as you see requests coming from other Elf Supervisors for their sector. This is especially true of chimney inspections which have been kind of a hot topic.

We do NOT feel the need to put out a similar request at this time. HOWEVER, if you have NOT yet done chimney inspections in your area please think about doing them soon. I’m targeting November 10th for this task in our sector.

I did check with Elf Roger and he tells me the forecast, especially for Canada in our Sector, is not the same as what we’re seeing in other Sectors. Elf Roger did advise “a regular schedule” for our region.

I think, just to stay organized, we’d like to request at this time an Elf Status Report for all elves in Sector 5. If you can get that done it would give us an idea of how many elves we have active right now. That may determine what we ask to have done.

We might also be asking for this same status report in the months and weeks ahead. So please check in here frequently.

The Elf Status Report can be found at this link.

Thanks. You guys rock.

Chimney Inspections in Sector 2

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Hi Sector 2 – we’re going to piggy-back on the call for chimney inspections in Sector 3 by asking all elves in any northern area of Sector 2 to do the same.

Elf Roger and Elf Seymour reached out to me after talking with Sector 3 and encouraged us to do the same.

If you haven’t yet done the chimney inspections we urge you to do it soon. Here’s the link.

Thanks!

Special Reporting Needs in Greenland

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Hello my fellow Elves!

A lot of people forget that Greenland is a part of Sector 4. That is largely because there are very few people who actually live in Greenland. It’s kind of a unique place.

But it is a critical part of Santa’s flight. He has to go there and it is fraught, frankly speaking, with dangers for him.

We reviewed our needs in Greenland with Elf Roger Star, who had some special requests from Santa.

We can either get more elves there or solicit the help of elves who might travel there to help report on conditions in Greenland.

We do not believe it is possible to get many new elves in Greenland. There are a few. But their are far apart and their reports are not adequate to meet the needs there.

So we are asking folks who may travel there on business or on pleasure, for their work in the military of various nations and such, and others who have reason to go there between now and Santa’s flight time, to take on these reporting needs if possible.

Please reach out to me personally on this project and I will direct you with what we’d like you to do. For security purposes, we cannot outline our needs in Greenland a this time.

Thanks!

Chimney Inspections Now in Sector 3

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Hi Elves!

Elf Seymour Snow in the Weather Department at North Pole Flight Command just shared the weather forecast for Northern and Eastern Europe through the end of October. They are predicting cold and unsettled weather.

After conferring with Elf Roger Star, we have determined to push up chimney inspections in those areas. We want you to get those inspections in now while it is safe to do so.

To file a chimney inspection report, please go to this link.

We have a lot of chimneys in these areas, so we know this is a big job. You only need to inspect the chimney on your own house and the ones on either side of your home. If you can do more, we appreciate the information.

If you have already completed the chimney inspections, thank you, you do not need to do them again.

Thanks, elves!

Growing Needs for Elves in Russia

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Hello Elves of Sector 2,

Russia is a very big country, the largest in our sector by physical size. It also has a lot of people.

We need more elves in Russia. A LOT more elves.

I’m asking all elves in Sector 2 to please reach out to your friends in Russia and to recruit them to be elves.

We have about 100 days to improve our numbers there.

I know we can do it.

New Tracker Elf Recruits Spike

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As the calendar has flipped from August to September we are seeing a spike in new recruits and tracker elf reports via SantaTrackers.net.

Freelance elves outnumber new North Pole Elf recruits by 10 to 1, a number that Elf Crash Murphy says is not surprising.

“We always want more elves joining us a SantaTrackers.net, but at this stage of the season we welcome those new freelance elves as well.” Elf Crash Murphy said. Elf Crash is the International Director of Santa Trackers. “Right now we’re compiling information that will be useful for Santa in building his flight plan. That’s job #1. The more eyes we have out there reporting on local conditions the better. It’s all about good and current information for Santa.”

It has been a pattern that from this point forward in the season the numbers of new elves will only continue to increase. Elf Crash says he would rather see them sign on earlier than later because there is time right now for them to train, ask questions and, more importantly, to “do quality work”.

We encourage all active elves to recruit their friends and family to become elves.

Test Flights Transitioning to a New Sector

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North Pole Flight Command today held a meeting to discuss the next few weeks of test flights for Santa’s sleigh. The test flights are transitioning to a new field of action and are in the process of heading east.

We also expect an announcement about a transition for the North Pole Navy. The fleet has been stationed in the Pacific for about 8 weeks.

It is an interesting time for the test flights. There is a lot of conflict going on in various war zones around the globe and North Pole Flight Command is trying to avoid them.

So far the tests have been uneventful and results are still good, at least as far as we have been told. The sleigh, which is based on last year’s record-breaking model, has yet to see a new version introduced.

With the early return of the reindeer some have speculated that the test flights of Santa’s sleigh might use teams from the general reindeer pool at the North Pole. Elf Victor, head of Reindeer Operations, squashed that rumor today and said that none of the reindeer at the North Pole are expected to be assigned test flight duty and they all will be pursuing customary training schedules as they do each year.

As we approach the 100-day countdown milestone to Santa’s launch it appears Santa’s new sleigh is right on track.

We will keep you posted.

Latest Updates For Trackers!

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As you know we found out about the rumor of the reindeer coming back to the north pole as I said in the news video I posted about 20 or 28 days ago, and we found out at Santa Update that they we’re coming back to the north pole in the radio news yesterday which is two days before September, which is unusual because the earliest the reindeer have returned is September. But the reindeer are back at the north pole with the reindeer operation elves.

Now to our update with the chat this month of September…

Now we heard yesterday that there is a chat with Elf Bernard on the 21st this month. If you have any questions that you want to share with Elf Bernard go to Ask an Elf here’s the link! santaupdate.com/north-pole-post-office/ask-an-elf/ . Frank will be interviewing Elf Bernard soon and will send a reminder in a few days. So Subscribe to the North Pole for news you might miss!

Enjoy your September!

We are getting to Christmas so keep it up elf friends!

This is Elf Westover Signing off!

And Remember…

STAY JOLLY!

Special Weather Report

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Greetings elves of Sector 5,

As we continue to work here at North Pole Flight Command (without a Regional Tracking Center to our name), I’ve been asked to put forth a special request.

Test flight planners are looking for forecasted bad weather within Sector 5 around the middle of September. I know it might be hard to find, and that there are no guarantees, but if you could use our standard weather report to share any information from your area about possible storms of any kind starting around September 15th they would appreciate knowing about it.

Right now they don’t know for sure what direction the test flights will take starting this weekend but it could be towards our sector if there is active weather.

The test flights are entering a critical phase and they need BAD weather to test things completely, at least that’s what I’m hearing.

As for the latest on a Regional Tracking Center for us, I have no new news. I hear that Elf Roger Star is back in Canada this week talking to some people, however.

If there is news with that I will, of course, share it as soon as possible.

Thanks, Elves!

Elf Engagement

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Yesterday I shared with you some very big numbers. Today, sadly, I’m going to share something just the opposite – a very small number.

One of the things we measure is something we call Elf Engagement. It is a number that estimates how many of our active elves – both North Pole elves and Freelance elves – who engage with the official North Pole websites (such as this one).

Right now, that number is super low.

And it makes sense that it would be. More than 125 days remains until Santa launches, it’s summer in some places, winter in others, and people are busy doing regular life stuff.

But, as you would expect, with the calendar soon to turn to September, you’d think elf engagement would rise.

After all, the News Department at the North Pole is busy publishing news on SantaUpdate.com, SantaTrackers.net, and NorthPoleFlightCommand.com.

All of these sites have now been around for years. And do you know what the Elf Engagement number is? Look at these numbers:

August – 0.034%
September – 5.2%
October – 13.2%
November – 21.1%
December 1-15th – 56.3%
December 16th-24th – 98.4%

Shocking isn’t it?

On the other hand, isn’t elf life just grand? What other kind of job out there lets you check out for most of the year and not get fired?

Yeah, Santa’s not going to fire you.

But I think Elf Engagement is something Santa will be talking about a little bit this weekend.

Again, this is just my opinion, but I think that number can really improve. In fact, I think it needs to. But that’s me, your little bean counter elf. It’s in my nature to always want to see a better number.

Is it bad that engagement among elves on official North Pole websites is so low until the last few days before Santa’s flight?

I will let Santa answer that question.

In the meantime, I think it is good if you ask a question of yourself:

Am I a good elf? Am I a year round elf? If Santa needed my help at any time other than the last few days before Christmas, would I be ready to help him?

That’s all for today, elves. Don’t answer those questions out loud. Just ask them of yourself, okay?