Elf recruiting is about to become a big deal, guys. I’ve been in a lot of meetings and there will be a lot of talk about this going forward. And I mean a lot.

It is a strange thing, if you ask me. It’s only June. Most people aren’t even thinking of Christmas. What’s more, Santa has not yet told us what our recruiting goal is this year. He usually does that in July, or at least he has for the last several years.

Maybe he will do it sooner this year. I do not really know. Everything else seems to be happening sooner this year, so why not Santa’s big announcement?

Anyway, regardless – getting new elves is going to become important.

How do you recruit new elves where you are? Well, that’s something we will be talking about for months. We know that no matter how hard we work it seems the most new-elf sign-ups happen in that last week before Christmas. That is not ideal. It means just a short period of training time for those elves who just sign up.

We know it is a much better experience if they sign up sometime before Christmas so they can get trained and have the fun that tracker elves usually have. But, it’s up to them.

Think about your friends. Think about your family. Heck, think about your parents. They need to become tracker elves, too. I’ll tell you right now it takes a lot more time for parents to train as tracker elves. So you might just want to start working on them now.

Keep an eye out from an elf named Flip Beanz. He’s a numbers guy. It’s his job to keep track of and to report on the number of tracker elves we have. I think his first report of the season is coming out in the next couple of weeks. He’ll tell us what the score is.

Also, your Elf Supervisor will be talking a lot more about this this year.

We are pleased and excited by the announcement from North Pole Flight Command today that the ancient city of St. Nicholas in Demre, Turkey will serve as the location for our regional tracking center in Sector 2.

In case you don’t know, Demre is the home of the legend of Santa Claus. It is where he was born. Not many people realize this.

I have not been there yet. This is a total surprise to me. I was part of the committee that scouted locations for this year’s tracking center in Sector 2. We went to China, India, Israel, Oman, and even into parts of Russia on our scouting trips. We saw many locations that would be excellent for a tracking center.

Rumor has it that Santa himself made this site selection. He was there about a month ago, talking with local authorities about potential locations.

Regardless, we now have a home. I am awaiting instructions from Flight Command about construction and possible dates for opening the tracking center. I will keep you informed as that happens.

Like most elf supervisors, I am waiting to learn why this is beginning so early this year and specifically what it means for the Santa tracking effort.

For those elves in Sector 2, please keep an eye open on the new group I set up last night. I will be posting news about our sector there.

Thanks!

Gang,

Flight Command has just requested a fresh local weather update from all areas of Sector 2.