Hi Friends in Sector 5,

We are enjoying a lot of new elves in recent days. I thought I’d post some reminders of what new elves need to do:

1. Get your profile right here on SantaTrackers.net. There are instructions for this but you should be able to figure it out easily. You need “Elf” in front of your name, you need a profile picture and cover.

2. Read the entire site. Go to Elf University to see how things work and how to be a tracker elf tracking Santa for Santa.

3. Ask questions. That’s what the Elf Wall is for. Lots of elves here will be glad to help you. It’s a great group.

4. Set up your home tracking center. You spend a lot of time there. Get comfy. Have Christmas stuff around you – a tree, a mug of nog, music, whatever works for you.

5. I’ll be sending out requests now and then for certain reports. If you haven’t done a tracker report yet you can learn the process by sending in these reports from your location as soon as you possibly can: – A roof report, a chimney inspection report, and a weather report. The weather report we will ask for more than any other report between now and when Santa launches. So doing these reports will teach you how to do them. Again, they are very easy.

6. Get familiar with the Santa Tracker Map. We’re in the tracking test flight phase of things right now.

Finally, be sure to check in several times a week. If you sign up, then wait to show up a few days before launch, you’re doing it wrong.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

I have been getting a few concerned messages from some elves in Sector 5. I want to assure you that even though we don’t yet have our Regional Tracking Center finalized for Sector 5 things are indeed happening.

I think as the month of August comes around next week all tracker elves in every sector will see communication coming from their Elf Supervisor, me included. Just because we’re homeless, so to speak, that doesn’t mean we’re not working. For me, I may be working from a cell phone in my car, but I’ll still be working.

Now, to answer your questions: no, I don’t really know what the hold up with. I just know that we have several cities that can host us and the powers that be are talking to all of them still. We’re going to have a Regional Tracking Center, I just don’t know where yet. It has long been out of my hands and I don’t actually get involved in the contract talks. So I cannot really tell you what is going on and what the problem is.

And, like you, I should not focus on that. Things are happening in our sector and we need to focus.

The test flights were over our area this past week for just a day or two. They’ll be back for an extended run some time later.

One of our first goals as a sector will be to see if we can see it when they are over us. Sleigh sightings are a huge part of being a tracker elf and I think we can use the practice. So keep an eye on the Santa tracker map.

Many are asking about reports and when we can start. Our lack of a Regional Tracking Center will mean we will depend upon you for reports more, not less. So be ready. Flight command is not yet asking for anything in particular yet. But I think that will change right around the middle of August with weather reports.

Of course, with the weather, the most important thing you can report is what you actually see. I know a lot of elves check in with local news stations or even the weather service where they are and that’s fine. But your big value is your observation of where you are. Don’t forget that. I know some trackers put a lot of apps on their phones or bookmark websites to check for when Flight Command asks about weather. That’s great. But don’t forget to look out the window.

Since we don’t have a Regional Tracking Center yet I’m going to ask you to hold off on inspections for a while. I’m going to meet with Elf Roger this week to get his ideas about how to handle that while we wait for our assignment. It does not make a lot of sense to have our tracker elves sending in reports we cannot process. We need to solve this problem of no Regional Tracking Center soon.

So hang in there, Elves. We’ll get it together!

Elves,

Are you watching this? Santa has these sudden bursts of speed – he literally tore through Australia in under an hour. Amazing!

The word I’m getting is that he is totally focused on breaking this speed record this year. He’s going to go through our sector just as fast. He’s moving like crazy!

Let’s help him out by sending him the most current weather forecast you can find. Get screen shots, take pictures – do whatever you have to do to get him the latest from your area.

Here’s the report: