Hi all! What follows are questions I received after today’s chat and the answers I want you all to know. Some of these questions may seem kind of simple for some of you but I am glad a few elves were brave enough to ask them of me. I think we have a lot of newer elves out there who are kind of wingin’ it and trying their best – but maybe we haven’t done as good a job training them as we hoped.

It also dawns on me that many are just now coming back to Christmas and tracking Santa for Santa. That is okay, too. As Elf Supervisors we have to remind ourselves that most elves working remotely have lives they need to attend to that is more than what we have to deal with. I work every day for Santa and you guys don’t get that opportunity. So, especially for those of you back in school, the time you get to know and do your elf work is kind of limited.

So please be kind in your response to these questions, if they seem basic to you. I want all of our elves to understand what Santa needs of you and how we (meaning the Elf Supervisors) are here to help you. Here are the questions and answers:

Q: Where do I find out where you leave instructions? I don’t know what to do as an elf and it isn’t clear to me where to find information?
A: Okay, this is a great question. I think one of the things made clear in our chat today was that many elves seemed to be saying they don’t know what to do right now. As that question was being asked in my mind I was thinking, “what? haven’t you been reading my posts?” Well, I think you’re telling me that’s not clear to you. So, here’s what you need to do. First of all, try to log in to the website here at least once a week, going forward. The first thing you should do it go to the News page – which looks like this:

Any news from Sector 5 is going to be headlined with the same post template – ours is red with a green stripe at the bottom that says “Sector 5 News”. Each sector has their own color and headline. For example, here is the post template for this post:

Whenever I post anything it shows up on our Sector 5 page, on the Elf Wall and in the Santa Tracker Herald Star with this same post image. You should check out all of these pages linked here if you really haven’t done so before. We try very hard to get information out to you through all these resources but it is up to you to get logged in and visiting often.

Q: My account was “retired” because I haven’t logged in. How do I get it back?
A: Yes, Elf Moe talked about this earlier this week. If you go 90 days without logging in your account is “retired”. That means it is basically locked down for security purposes. Elf Moe can unlock it if you send either him or me a note. If you got longer than 90 days – your account could be deleted (many already have) and you won’t be able to get it back. This is policy and I can’t do anything about it.

Q: What is my job?
A: Our job is to “track Santa for Santa”. To do that we try to accomplish these three things:

1. Learn the Elf Code, try to recruit more people to Become an Elf
2. Provide the North Pole with local information that will be helpful to Santa when he takes flight
3. Track Santa when he flies and respond when North Pole Flight Command asks for something.

Right now, we’re working a lot on #1 and #2. In terms of reports, I’m asking right now that you send in each week a local weather report for your area. You can literally copy and paste a link to a local weather news site or even just gab the text from one and put it in your report. Weather reports are used by Flight Command to plan test flights AND to learn weather patterns in your local area. That’s why sending them in each week is important. What day should you send this in? Really, it doesn’t matter. But I prefer you send it in on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, if that’s okay.

Other reports will be asked of you at odd times. Sometimes I want them for the database of information I’m building about the Sector for Santa, sometimes I ask for stuff that Flight Command wants to know.

One report that is becoming really important is the Local Christmas Report. You’re going to want to get familiar with this one because I’m going to ask for it a lot.

That’s about it for now, guys. More stuff to come, I promise. Thanks for all your hard work. If you have additional questions, please ask them in the comments below and I will answer them.

Hi y’all!

We have finally received buy-in from all our Elf Supervisors for a joint chat for all sectors this Sunday at 11am EST.

We know that time is not convenient for many people. It is simply impossible for us to find a time that works for everyone.

But, with North Pole Chat scheduled with Elf Hugo scheduled this Sunday at SantaUpdate.com at 10am we feel that we have the best chance to get folks together for a chat with the Elf Supervisors right after that.

So after you chat it up with Elf Hugo on Sunday morning at SantaUpdate.com, just come over here to SantaTrackers.net to chat with the Elf Supervisors.

I have ask the Elf Supervisors to make this an open chat. That means YOU will be driving the discussion – not them. Don’t expect any big announcements and a huge list of instructions to come from this chat. This chat is about YOUR questions for THEM.

I might be there, lurking in the background. I want the focus to be on the Supervisors.

Elf Max will moderate the chat and will be able to answer questions, too.

Thanks!

Greetings Trackers!

I am pleased to announce that I have been in contact with five school teachers in the past week who all want to track Santa for Santa as a class. I think this is a really cool idea.

That means making some special arrangements. Technically, each class is registered as an elf under the teacher’s name. They will be working together, collectively sending in reports for their individual areas.

I’ve also agreed to take their questions and reply to them via posts here on SantaTrackers.net. The first of these will be coming out in a couple of weeks.

I’m hoping this is the best way to handle this. Each of these great teachers have agreed to work with me as we test this out.

That being said, if you know of other teachers out there that want to do this sort of thing please put them in contact with me. At least while it is early in the season we should be able to accommodate them.

Some of you are asking about when to send specific reports. Right now, I want to focus on you sending weekly the stuff I asked for earlier – weather reports, mostly.

In about a week we’re going to start looking at rooftops and chimneys. But I’m not quite yet ready for those. It’ll be good to get those out of the way before bad weather sets in and I figure we have about a month still of decent weather, at least in northern areas.

Thanks for all you’re doing!

Elves,

The test flights of Santa’s sleigh will be wrapping up in Sector 5 this week and heading for “an extended period in the Pacific region”.

That’s us – or at least mostly us. I suppose it’s possible the sleigh could be on the fringes of Sector 2 at times.

Doesn’t matter. We’ll be in the spotlight.

My source in Flight Command does not say exactly where the test flights will be going. However, in talking with another elf I know who has contact with the North Pole Navy, I know ships of the navy are already headed towards Guam, Japan and the Philippines. I also heard one of the ships assigned to the Indian Ocean is transferring towards Australia and New Zealand waters.

So it looks like a lot of activity is headed our way for the next few weeks in September.

Also, just so you know, I’m looking to organize a chat with the other elf supervisors. Just giving you a heads up for now. If it is going to happen I’d like to do it around the middle of the month.

We’ll keep you posted.