“Streamlined System Informs Priesthood,” Ensign, Mar. 1975, 78
Streamlined System Informs Priesthood
The Church has adopted a new method of disseminating information to local priesthood leaders, a sheet of information called MESSAGES. The new form will replace most letters from the offices of the First Presidency, the Council of the Twelve, the First Council of the Seventy, the Presiding Bishopric, and the general departments of the Church.
Several purposes are accomplished by compiling all communications onto the MESSAGES sheet. First, a great amount of money will be saved. For example, the fifth issue of MESSAGES, sent out January 1, 1975, contained 11 items. Under the former system each of those items would have been sent in a separate letter; under the new system they were compiled onto one sheet of paper, saving over 100,000 sheets of paper and as many stamps and envelopes. Second, if local authorities need to reproduce the information in MESSAGES, it can be done by copying only one sheet, instead of many, which is a further savings. Third, MESSAGES will cut down on the great amount of mail local authorities have to read.
Under this system, each officer receives only what applies to his stewardship. Stake presidents, district presidents, bishops, and branch presidents receive a yellow sheet containing only information pertaining to their callings. Mission presidents receive both a blue sheet containing information they need to know and the yellow sheet (because of their stewardship over the local leadership). General Authorities and Regional Representatives of the Council of the Twelve receive the blue and yellow sheets because of their stewardships over stake, local, and mission officers; in addition they receive a green sheet that applies to them. All MESSAGES are sent in the national language of the receiver.
With the inception of MESSAGES, the Priesthood Bulletin, which previously informed priesthood leaders on policy matters, now will be used only to update the priesthood handbooks.
Although letters are still sent out when information cannot wait until MESSAGES is distributed or when the message applies only to a certain area of the Church, most communication from Church headquarters now goes through MESSAGES.
Thomas E. Brown, training coordinator in the Presiding Bishopric’s Office, compares the stack of an average 170 sheets received monthly by bishops under the previous system with two sheets now received as MESSAGES.