Elf Training #9: Forming a Group

Some of you have been asking about Tracker Groups. Many of you have said you saw this page at North Pole Flight Command.

The questions range from how to become part of such a group to how to start such a group. Other questions have come in about what that page and the sign-up page for groups is located at that website and not this one.

Tracker groups come in all types. There are small groups that have as few as two elves and large groups that have hundreds. There are also different kinds of groups. There are groups that are physically located all in the same neighborhood. Or groups that are spread out over a city or a region. Some groups are virtual and track Santa together online.

It does not matter where your group is, how large it is, or if you actually even know all the others elves in your group.

North Pole wants to encourage Santa tracking together because it is fun and it gets more done for Santa when it comes time to fly.

But we need to keep things official. That’s why we use North Pole Flight Command’s website to register Tracker Elf groups.

There is a team of elves at North Pole Flight Command that keep track of this stuff. When a new application comes in the first thing that happens to it is a screen of the group by North Pole Security. If they see no problems it goes back to the team at North Pole Flight Command to work out the details.

What kind of details?

Some groups have websites or podcasts or radio stations. They, naturally, want to tell other people they are authorized by the North Pole. If wanted, North Pole Flight command gives the group access to maps, the radio streams from the North Pole and the news headlines from all of our sites that publish on the Internet. We share. That’s what elves do.

All of that requires some coordination.

So, as you can see, there is a much bigger process to handling a Tracker Group as opposed to hiring a Tracker Elf.

Should you be part of a group? Well, sure, if you want to put in the time. It is fun to come up with a name and to find other trackers out there and to do all this together with them. Santa encourages it. I encourage it. It is a great way to have more fun tracking Santa.

About this Elf: Elf Max

Elf Max is the webmaster of SantaTrackers.net and Executive Director of the Elf Community. Max has worked in computer systems web development for many years. He has been an anchor for the tracker elf program and has been with this project from the very beginning. When he's not tweaking the website he's running off to fix someone's computer.