LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley dies at age 97

He said further that although members of these quorums would not be general authorities, they would function in the leadership ranks between local and general church authorities, such as creating and reorganizing stakes, touring missions and serving in area presidencies.

• The announcement that, with the exception of Deseret Management Corp., general authorities would no longer serve on corporate boards.

• The First Presidency Proclamation on the Family at the September 1995 General Women's Conference reaffirming the divinity of marriage and the family. This was a theme he continued to emphasize.

• A new church logo.

• Creation of Latter-day Saint Charities to distribute surplus goods worldwide to people in need.

• Construction of the Conference Center on the block north of Temple Square for general conferences, other church gatherings and community events. As a result, the Deseret Gym, a longtime Salt Lake landmark, was demolished. This construction also came during the renovation of I-15 in the Salt Lake Valley and the completion of the Salt Lake-Sandy TRAX light-rail line in preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics. The Conference Center was dedicated at the October 2000 general conference.

• The announcements in the October 1997 general conference of the plan to build smaller temples, the need to fellowship new converts and that women were not obligated to serve full-time missions. The announcement of 30 more small temples in various parts of the world came in the next conference.

• The transition of Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, from a two-year college to a four-year institution on Aug. 10, 2001, renaming it BYU-Idaho and eliminating the school's intercollegiate athletic program.

• The introduction in fall 1998 of a new two-volume Church Handbook of Instructions, the first volume for unit administration and the second for priesthood and auxiliary leaders.

• Distribution of packets of LDS materials to libraries in the United States and Canada.

• Newly designed temple recommends and inclusion of a field for humanitarian donations on donation slips.

• Change of Relief Society homemaking night to a night for home, family and personal enrichment.

• Continued reconstruction and, in some cases, replacement of meetinghouses. Also, at his request, free-standing steeples alongside many meetinghouses were replaced by steeples atop meetinghouses.

• Introduction of the teacher improvement plan.

• The disbanding, in March 2002, of stake missions, with the bishop and ward taking over the missionary, activation and retention responsibilities.

• Beginning with the April 2002 general conference, the audiovisual version of conference proceedings becoming available on DVDs.