Church Policies and Announcements

The following items appeared in a recent Messages, sent to stake/mission/district presidents and to bishops and branch presidents:

“1. Requests for Travel Assistance by Church Members. Church leaders in some areas receive letters from members outside their jurisdiction asking for help in planning vacations, and local members are often asked to provide housing and financial aid for them. These requests are inappropriate. Members planning trips should make their own arrangements through travel agencies and not burden Church leaders or members in other areas by asking for assistance.

“2. Interviews of Prospective Students for Church Schools. Students should not be recommended to attend the Church schools, colleges, or university unless they agree to support the Latter-day Saint standards on these campuses. All prospective students should be interviewed carefully for worthiness and willingness to observe the code of honor and the dress and grooming standards explained on the interview form. The code of honor and the dress and grooming standards have the full support of the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve. In view of all that is expected of students in the Church Educational System, it is a mistake to recommend an individual for admission who would detract from the special environment that thousands of others create and rely upon.

“3. Ordering 1980–81 Family Home Evening Manuals. Since 1965, the Church has distributed family home evening manuals to Church members for use during weekly family home evenings. The manuals contain lessons for teaching the gospel in the home. …

“Future home evening manuals will contain materials reprinted from previous issues. Families that have copies from previous years may not need a copy of the 1980–81 manual because they can use lessons from past issues.

“Families may wish to use the scriptures, Conference Reports, Church magazines, or other gospel-centered materials for family home evening lessons in place of the family home evening manual. This may be especially true for families who do not have children at home.

“Those families who do not need a current family home evening manual can save the Church considerable money because fewer copies will need to be printed. However, members who have joined the Church recently, or who for other reasons do not have the past issues in their homes, will need to order copies of the 1980–81 manual.

“4. Copyright Guide for Wards, Stakes, and Missions. It is Church policy to comply with the copyright laws, which make it illegal to copy sheet music, magazine articles, tapes, pictures, and other similar work without the permission of the copyright owner. It is also illegal to present plays, roadshows, or motion pictures without such permission. Well-meaning members may be tempted to avoid costs by such illegal use of copyrighted material, but it is not fair to the copyright owner and may result in difficulties and embarrassment to the Church.

“Copyrighted material can be recognized by the symbols © or ® or the word “copyright” (sometimes abbreviated copr.) or the words “all rights reserved” appearing on it.

“Requests for copyright permissions and information should be addressed to the Church Copyrights and Permissions Office, Floor 24, 50 East North Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150.”