My Fellow Elves,

We are getting huge numbers of new elf sign-ups, which is great, but it is driving a lot of questions to us behind the scenes. I thought it would be helpful to just share a few things with you about the website and how it all works.

Report a User

This is a new feature that is intended to help with naughty elves who post things that are inappropriate or engage in behavior that is unbecoming an elf. We work hard to avoid such stuff but some just misbehave anyway. There is a little button that will appear when you mouse over the profile of any elf. It looks like this:

When you click on that button it alerts the elves running the website of the problem and they should jump to take care of it right away.

Be very careful how you use this button. Elf Moe is the one who gets the message and Moe isn’t an elf to be messed with. He makes the final decisions of who stays and who goes. This button is ONLY to report something inappropriate. Do not use it to report a user who hasn’t done anything wrong – Moe could ban you!

The Difference Between Elf Chat and the Elf Wall

Some new users are wandering into Elf Chat expecting elves of all types to be there all the time. The purpose of Elf Chat is more for scheduled events than it is for everyday conversation. You are welcome to use Elf Chat at any time but most of the time no one is there. Take a look at the Elf Calendar to see when events are scheduled for Elf Chat.

The rest of the time you will want to post on the Elf Wall. That’s where most elves go to share information and to meet each other.

Elf Jobs

Many new elves expect to apply and get some of the elf jobs posted. Not much hiring for these positions are open any more, however. All the elves that have been here year round have been assigned to them. We still are working to update the Elf Map to show all the new city captains, state representatives and country ambassadors. As we catch up with that you will see the dozens and dozens of elf jobs that have been filled.

Our advice to new elves joining now is to work as a tracker elf through Christmas and then stick around to apply for new elf jobs that come up in the New Year.

Groups

Likewise we are done forming new groups for the year. We have some groups that were formed over the summer that are not being managed or used. We will keep them up for now but after Christmas we may close them if they are not active. If you are interested in taking over an existing group that nobody is running any more you can contact me and we’ll discuss it.

North Pole Complaint Department

Be VERY careful how you use this group and what you might say. Elf Moe is a little grumpy and he has no patience for complainers, honestly. If you feel the need to complain, please do so carefully.

Hello Elves!

As you may have read at SantaUpdate.com we are soon to celebrate Leon Day, the half-way point to Christmas. It is just a week away.

While we celebrate the day with silly things here at the North Pole it is not necessary that you do the same. At the North Pole elves wear their clothes backwards and talk backwards. It is not necessary for you to do that where you are. You can, if you want. But it is not required.

Despite the goofiness of the day it still remains a work day at the North Pole. The workshop does not stop working for Leon Day. The test flights of Santa’s sleigh continue. Everything operates normally…well, as normal as can be with backwards elves.

What Leon Day means for the serious tracker elf is that the news gets much busier. Being more than half way just means we get busier.

So it’s a signal for you. Things are happening and happening quickly. Be sharp.

Hello elves! No sooner did the big Tracker Elf Conference get announced then a meeting was held today to set it all up. As a result, you can now see the conference agenda.

We are releasing this a month in advance so that you can prepare. How do you do that?

1. Review all tracker elf training materials and make a list of questions.
2. Match your questions to the presentation where you think it will best fit. (Although any of our experts will be glad to take any question you have).

Each presentation at the conference will be about 10-15 minutes long. The remaining time after each speaker is meant for you to ask questions. That open discussion is where most elves learn the most stuff.

It is very important that you ask questions at the conference. We want every elf to be aware and to understand.

Also be looking for LOTS of new training material to be introduced around the time of the Conference. We have elves working on that stuff now and we will begin releasing new training information around the 10th of July this year, just in advance of the Conference.

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.