June 2007

Wow! June was a busy, busy month. Mrs. Claus & I had a lot of visits to make so we were travelling quite a bit. Mostly affairs of State. It is important that we maintain a good relationship with governments around the world for a lot of reasons. Obviously we want to maintain our tax free status but there is also a lot of beuracracy that may not readily come to mind. We need permission to work in most countries (i.e. work Visas) as our deliveries are considered work. We need permission to enter airspace. The list goes on and on. So we spend quite a bit of time during the year visiting with heads of State and making sure we stay on positive terms. We spent 3 weeks on the road in June... mostly in Central & Eastern Europe and Northern Africa.

It was also busy as the RFP for our outsourcing went out. We are very close to selecting a supplier. We know who we want to engage but negotiations are still underway. Because of the negotiations, I can't say much more. I am a little worried though that the Jingle (my Chief of Staff) was contacted by the Elves Union regarding the Outsourcing. The Union head, Jimmy, expressed concern about our true intent for Outsourcing. Jingle & Melody (head of Internal Communications, Public Relations, Legal, & Community Affairs) will meet with Jimmy and other union representatives in July to discuss further. Clearly we have to do this to stay fiscally afloat. At the moment, I believe we can really focus our lower-cost outsourcing on new - or incremental - demand and avoid having to move any jobs away from the North Pole.

The first part of July isn't going to be much more restful either as we continue with negotiations, begin overhauling our manufacturing facilities in preparation for the next season, start receiving raw materials, continue various State visits across Asia-Pacific, and resume our work with refugee children in Africa. I am hoping I can sneak Mrs. Claus away for a long weekend in the tropics somewhere at some point during the month. We are both going to need a break.

Well... I'll talk to you in July. Keep an eye out for me. You never know where I might show up.