Fellow Elves and Trackers in the Service of Santa,

It is shaping up to be an interesting season already. While I can report that we are on track with our early reporting in our efforts to track Santa for Santa I can tell you now that more will be asked of us this year.

While I cannot yet share full details of what is going on – that will be coming out soon — I can tell you our need for GOOD elves is growing by the minute.

As such, I have directed our Elf Supervisors today to effect as many elf promotions as possible.

That means that as a Freelance or Junior Tracker elf you can be elevate to full North Pole Elf status and obtain greater status and accessibility on this website just by sending your elf supervisor a message.

I am not entirely sure at this time what more will be asked of us in the Tracking Department. But we want to be ready. To be ready means more elves are trained and ready to serve Santa.

More details will be forthcoming. Those elves able and smart enough to act on this message will be rewarded. We need more good elves.

Hello Elves of Sector 3! I send you greetings from Christmas Island in Zimbabwe.

I’m watching with great interest the situation with the test flights in Sector 5. I want to see how they handle it because I think in a month or two those flight could be coming our way. If that happens – and I hope we are lucky enough to be chosen – it could impact what we work on during the months of September or October. So I want to be ready.

So…let’s get to work, shall we?

First, I know this could be a month of change for some of you. The seasons are changing in all areas. So, when you get a chance, please check in via an Elf Status report and give me a good idea of how available you might or might not be at this time. I want to give you enough to do but not too much so that you do not feel overwhelmed.

Second, while the weather remains good in most areas, I say we get to work sending in roof reports and chimney inspections.

As always, be very careful doing these reports. Do not get on rooftops to do these reports. Stay safe!

I usually get questions about how many houses you need to do roof and chimney reports for. The hope is that you will do your house, and if close enough, the homes on either side of you. If you can do more houses in your neighborhood, that’s even better.

What if you live in an area where the homes do not have chimneys? You don’t worry about it. You do not need to send in a report stating there are no chimneys. If there are no chimneys don’t say anything. Flight Command will assume – and pass along to Santa – the info of “no known chimney”.

Some Elf Supervisors think it is too early for these roof and chimney reports. I don’t. In fact, I think it is the best time to do them.

Finally, please try to send in a local weather report every Wednesday. Why Wednesday? I don’t know. Frankly, I love doing weather reports. I even do them myself right here in Christmas Island. I just love reporting on the weather. I think it is fun. I want us to get used to doing them every week so that when the test flights are here we’re strong with weather reporting. It’s pretty critical.

Ok, that’s it for now. Thank you for Elfing.

The elf job of Sector Lead is evolving. It will now require added duties, as listed at the job description found on this page.

Due to the changes in the position, I have decided to release all existing Sector Leads from their positions. They are welcome to re-apply and would be strongly considered if they are willing to take up the new duties as listed in the job description.

What is different about this position?

After long discussions with the Elf Supervisors, it was decided that Sector Leads need to have a more visible presences both on SantaTrackers.net and on social media channels. Sector Leads will be given more responsibility in both recruiting and news outreach efforts. This will require a lot more time and certainly a lot effort. That was a key reason why I chose to release those currently in the position.

The job has just changed.

The Elf Supervisors not only ask for a voice in recruiting for this position but also an ability to tailor the job to their own needs in each sector. I support this request. A Sector Lead in one sector will need to adapt to the needs of that sector through communication with the Elf Supervisor.

Please note that while the job description says a Sector Lead needs to be a North Pole Elf with a presence on SantaTrackers.net I will be flexible in that requirement in sectors where access and language make finding qualified candidates difficult (looking at you Sector 2). I will consider the possibility of a strong freelance elf candidate (or two).

If you are freelance elf with interest and qualifications in the Sector Lead position, please reach out via a standard freelance tracker report submission or via the support page here at SantaTrackers.net

If you have questions please feel free to ask them below or on the Elf Wall.

Today we have added a new report to the library of reports offered here on SantaTrackers.net. Elf Max has restructured the library pages and added a new report to the Personal Reports library titled “Message Your Elf Supervisor”.

This new report was born out of concern for the many new Junior Tracker Elves coming on board this year.

Their job in their first six months as an elf is to try to get promoted to North Pole Elf status and join the Elf Community. To do that, they need to become known to their elf supervisors.

One way to do that is via the tracker reports that our Elf Supervisors ask you all to provide.

But because Junior Elves are NOT part of the Elf Community there is no direct way for them to reach out to their Elf Supervisor. Furthermore, privacy laws prevent two-way communication outside of the regulated environment of the community.

As Elf Moe, Santa and myself discussed this challenge we determined the best way to do this was to implement this new report that will allow any elf to send a message directly to the Elf Supervisor.

This is a good idea for our North Pole Elves of the community as well. The Elf Community is accessible to our Elf Supervisors but they get very busy and rarely have time to check messages.

This new report operates via channels controlled by the North Pole Post Office and flows through regular reporting protocols. In other words, when you use this NEW REPORT your message gets routed like a report – and it gets straight to your Elf Supervisor right away.

(Every report that comes in requires action in the Regional Tracking Center that receives it. Elves working in the Regional Center tag the report, send it to the teams who assess that information. When necessary, follow up actions are added or the information is filed for use for when Santa flies to the area you are reporting from. Making a message for your supervisor thus means it goes into a queue where they HAVE to read it and act on it).

Even though your Elf Supervisor cannot reply to you in these messages they can still see what you have to say and then choose whether or not to post something on SantaTrackers.net publicly in response to it.

As we get more and more of our Regional Tracking Centers announced the likelihood of report requests will be increasing. In fact, you should expect a first request from your Elf Supervisor anytime within the next week.

We encourage you to learn about and use this new report.

Note to Freelance Elves: this new report is not available to you. We encourage you to reach out to your Elf Supervisor via the standard freelance elf report.