Coming Numbers to Follow

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Hello Fellow Elves!

Santa, Elf Crash Murphy and Elf Roger Star met with the Accounting Department last week to discuss a report I sent them some time ago. Based on our discussions in that meeting, I have been charged with sharing with you via SantaTrackers.net some important numbers.

Numbers are a very important part of Operation Merry Christmas, or any other important enterprise. Numbers measure success. They point to action that has to be taken to improve. Nobody goes to watch a sport anywhere without numbers because numbers are how we know who wins. We have all kinds of numbers we follow at the North Pole and we watch them religiously.

Santa wants you to be aware of these statistics BEFORE his chat with you later this month.

Both he and Elf Crash Murphy believe that if you know this data, and understand it, you will be better prepared to do your job as a tracker elf this season.

I’m going to need a few days to put this all together. But what will follow from me will be information about elves, tracker elves, reindeer, sleighs, time, North Pole Flight Command and the North Pole (and by extension, Santa) that may be interesting to you.

I realize some of you, especially younger elves who are new to tracking Santa in this way, may struggle to know what to do with this information. That is why I’m giving you a heads up that this information is coming. We are a community. As you read things that are posted by elves like me it is okay to share that you don’t understand it or that you have questions. Other elves here can help and your Elf Supervisors will also be available to answer your questions and to share what they think the numbers mean.

All of this is designed to help your chat with Santa which is later on this month. (And what hasn’t that been officially posted yet?)

Anyway, my name is Elf Flip Beanz and I’m your number elf. It’s my job to gather and keep this data. I usually send my reports to Santa and other elves like Crash and Roger. But for whatever reason, for the next couple of weeks, they want me to focus on you.

So please know this stuff is coming and that’s it is okay to ask questions about it.

Thank you.

Santa Chat is Scheduled

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Santa Claus is coming to Elf Chat on August 24th at 9am EST.

This long-touted chat is anticipated to bring a lot of elves. Santa has a message for elves everywhere and this is the time slated for him to present it to tracker elves.

Please note that this chat will precede another chat scheduled at 10am EST at SantaUpdate.com with Elf Ernest.

The planning of these chats back to back is on purpose. The North Pole wants elves to attend these chats and to get their questions answered before the season gets underway. It is expected to be a very active season this year as Santa has some special missions lined up.

According to Elf Max, the chat room at SantaTrackers.net has been remodeled and is fully functional. You may want to familiarize yourself with the new set up in advance of the chat.

We hope to see you there.

Weather Reports Needed in Sector 2

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Elves of Sector 2, greetings I send you from India.

It appears that Santa’s sleigh is going to be in our sector for a while. We’re not sure exactly where they are headed.

But from Elf Seymour Snow in the Weather Tracking Department today came a request for local weather reports as soon as possible from all elves in Sector 2.

You know what to do. The report can be found at this link.

That is all that is requested at this time.

Sector 4 Call to Duty

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Hola, Amigos!

Sector 4 is now active with our Regional Tracking Center in Peru. As part of our efforts to get organized, we’d like as many elves as possible in Sector 4 to please do an Elf Status Report.

We’re just trying to get a handle on our numbers.

When last season ended we had roughly 6 million tracker elves in Sector 4. The majority of those were freelance elves. Freelance elves are going to come and go but our North Pole Elves – you guys! – need to be accounted for.

I just need to see how many of you are on the job right now.

We’ll get to other things soon but in my view this is the most important thing we can be doing right now.

So get that in as soon as you can.

Thanks – TR

Regional Tracking Center Update

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Hi elves,

I understand some of you have been writing in to the North Pole very concerned about the Regional Tracking Center for Sector 5. I do have some news to share – a little.

First of all, you should know that for now we are taking up space at North Pole Flight Command and we are fully operational – as if we had our own Regional Tracking Center. We’re in good shape. It’s still very early in the season, of course, but just because we do not yet have an official location doesn’t mean we are not officially working. We are.

Elf Crash Murphy has been busy this week. He has been to Panama, Mexico, the United States and Canada. He has been meeting with several finalist locations and had held several Zoom calls with both Elf Roger Star and with Santa.

While there is nothing yet official to report I understand good progress has been made. Elf Crash will be back online soon to report on the situation personally.

Please understand that no matter when or where they place us we will be ready to move seamlessly from our temporary offices here at North Pole Flight Command – you won’t even notice it when that time does come.

That being said, right now, what we need from you more than anything are weather reports. It is active hurricane season and that is affecting the oceans of the the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico and all countries and island nations that have their shores in those waters.

It’s my understanding that there are presently two storms forming in the Atlantic that we need to keep an eye on.

The test flights of Santa’s sleigh are not presently even in our hemisphere but I don’t know if or when that will change. They’ve already changed course from the Middle East to somewhere now in Sector 2. They could come into our orbit within a day or two.

So if you live in the Caribbean or along the Gulf Coast or in the South Eastern USA keep those weather reports coming.

This is a quickly changing thing, as is normal for this time of year, in our area. Let’s help keep those reindeer and those pilots and those test flight sleighs SAFE!

When I know more of what’s going on with our Regional Tracking Center you elves will be the first to know.

Thank you for your hard work!

Santa Wants to Chat

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I don’t normally post news but I’ve got a busy week that will keep me offline most of this week and I want to at least get this word out there:

Santa wants to chat. With us. In Elf Chat right here on SantaTrackers.net.

Elf Winslow is working the details on this one and we just don’t have it worked out yet. But bookmark the weekend of August 24th and August 25th. I don’t know anything beyond that yet. But I think it’s going to be held that weekend some time. We should know more in a few days.

By now you’ve like heard the news report Frank and I did on North Pole Radio News or read the bit about Santa meeting with groups of elves.

He’s coming for us, guys.

Normally we’re seeking chats with him but this time he’s seeking a chat with us. This is important. Not only is he going to send the message that we shared last night on the radio but he has a few things he wants to tell our group specifically about the months ahead and what we’re in store for. If you can make this chat I hope you will.

In many ways, this is already shaping up to be an interesting year. I can’t help but wonder what Santa’s chat with us will bring us that is new.

There are lots of things going on in the world. Lots of stuff happening now with Operation Merry Christmas.

Things are good in our world. Always remember that. We’re organized, we’re ahead of goal. We need to keep our eyes squarely on Santa and listen to what he has to say later this month.

If you have questions, write them down. Be ready to ask them. Santa has told me he wants to take as much time as is necessary to answer questions in this chat.

So let’s be prepared.

Let’s Roll with the Chimney Inspections

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Elves of Sector 3 – we’re live in Hamburg and already hard at work. After some discussions with Elf Seymour Snow we have determined to begin with Chimney Inspections in Sector 3 right away.

Elf Seymour believes our northern areas especially will see an early winter this year. He projects a window of approximately 8 weeks with predictable weather. I’m taking that as our cue to get this done.

If you’ve never done a chimney inspection before, head on over to this report form to check it out.

Santa does not always use a chimney. When he does, however, we want it to be safe.

Your chimney inspections flow to us here at the Regional Track Center and we use it in the database of information we compile for Santa between now and flight time. Our goal is to fill that database with so much information that Santa could fly in blindfolded and still be able to deliver.

Remember, the more information we can report the fast Santa can go and the safer his delivery will be. These reports are important in Santa being able to complete his mission.

Let’s get to work, elves!

Things are Happening in Sector 5

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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!

Who’s Retiring?

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I was in Crashes chat on Saturday then I heard them talking about Santa’s whereabouts. They said he was at the North Pole Navy talking about things and one of those things was the Elf Retirement.

The one things i’m wondering about is who is retiring? Because I haven’t seen anything suspicious lately. This guy is keeping this real secret till I heard about it. but who could it be? Is it Elf Hugo, head of the North Pole Post Office? Is it someone from the Workshop of making toys? Is it Bernard? Although this might be true this is a really big thing.

But who is retiring? I know a lot of elves I would not even know which one to expect! I have 47 friends! That would take me For-Ev-er! So who’s the elf? I know an elf would never be happy that they were retiring because they love the North Pole! They love working for kids but why do they want to retire? Is it because they are getting older and they think its a great time to do so? That’s fine but why? And who is retiring?

Thank you for reading and get your grill going i’m wishing you all a very merry Christmas in July!

Have a great week and remember!…

STAY JOLLY!

 

Hello from Hamburg

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Fellow elves of Sector 3 – I send you greetings from Hamburg, Germany where we have arrived just hours ago via express sleigh from the North Pole. We are fresh off the Elf Supervisors Meeting and we’re excited to be in what will be our home for the next three months.

When I left, I was told that North Pole Flight Command would make the announcement. They did! So now we can get down to business.

I have roughly 440 elves here with me – and we’re anxious to get to work. Santa has asked that we get up and running by August 1st, but I plan to get there earlier than that if we can. There is much to be done.

This is a big city. It’s lovely here. I’m told it’s a Christmas city, one of the biggest and the best in all of Germany. So we are very excited to learn about the area and get settled in.

It’s surprising. The cities being chosen this year are bigger than ever, and no where near as remote. I’ve never worked in a place so big.

It’ll be interesting. I’m a little concerned that the public might find us. North Pole Security is meeting with us first thing this week to talk about that. We are a large team here in Sector 3. It might prove difficult for them all to keep quiet about where we are. We’ll see.

In any event, I’m confident in our prospects going forward. It will be great to get setup, get connected and start with the business of Tracking Santa for Santa.

India Here We Come

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Greetings from the sleigh! We’re in flight right now, headed to our new Regional Tracking Center home for Sector 2 this year – Kochi, India!

Kochi is so ideally suited for us in Sector 2. It is fairly central to the middle of our sector, which just happens to be the biggest in the world.

We have access to everything here: great food, high-speed fiber Internet, a local eggnog producer, full reindeer facilities, sleigh repair, and some of the biggest artificial Christmas trees in all the world. Yes, Kochi knows how to celebrate Christmas.

We have all the plans in place and we’ve been charged with getting it all set up by the end of July. But here’s a news flash for you kids: we’re going to get this baby up in under a week.

I have been here so much the past several months that I know everything that needs to get done. I’m guessing we’ll be the first sector with a fully functional Regional Tracking Center set up. That’s how confident that I am.

So hang tight. We’re going to be in business here real fast. And once we get up and running my plan is to put you trackers to work right away.

Honors for Sector 1

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Elves of Sector 1, I have great news.

First, and you likely already know this, the location of our Regional Tracking Center this year will be in Otaru, Japan. Announced yesterday by North Pole Flight Command, I was informed of this decision during a fun little ceremony here at the Elf Supervisor meeting.

I’m very excited to be heading to Japan on Saturday by express sleigh. This is one of the locations I personally scouted several months ago and I’m very excited to go.

Also, Sector 1 was named the Sector of the Year by the executive team at North Pole Flight Command for the work we did last Christmas.

We were the sector that most improved overall performance and even Santa himself said, “The work in Sector 1 cannot be applauded enough. Without their efficiency and robust Christmas spirit there is no way a new sleigh speed record was set and no way the accomplishments of last year’s ride could have been made.”

This is great! I’m so proud of you all and thankful for another opportunity to do even better this year.

Be sure to hang out for the next several weeks, guys. We’ve got lots of great news coming as we track Santa again!