February 2000 meeting The fourth meeting of the Board of Directors of RI in 1999-00 was held at One Rotary Center in Evanston, Illinois, USA, on 14-17 February 2000. At this meeting, the Board reviewed reports from 12 committees and recorded 105 decisions. Edwin H. Futa was unanimously elected to be the General Secretary of Rotary International, effective 1 July 2000.

Edwin H. futa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA General Secretary, Rotary International

Ed joined the RI staff in November of 1998 as the manager of strategic planning for the Secretariat. He came to Rotary from Hawaii, where he was president of an international marketing consulting firm. Active in youth ministry, he also served on the Board of Governors of the YMCA and as a mediator in the Neighborhood Justice Center of Honolulu. A Rotarian since 1979, Ed is a member of the Rotary Club of East Honolulu. He has served RI as district governor, group discussion leader, committee member, Rotary Foundation regional coordinator, and RI president’s representative to numerous district conferences. He has been keynote speaker at many district conferences, assemblies, and other district and club venues.

General Secretary’s Address, Ed Futa, General Secretary, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA 25 May 2011

Eleven years ago, my name went up on the door of the general secretary's office at Rotary International headquarters. In just a few weeks, it will come down. And I will go back to my first Rotary job, which was and still is the most important job in all of Rotary: the job of being a Rotarian.

I've been a Rotarian since 1979, and so much has changed in those years. Rotary has changed, the world has changed, and our role has evolved significantly. But what has not changed is who we are, and the reasons we are strong — the fellowship and the friendship, the warmth of our Rotary communities, and the special bonds that unite us all. There is so much that is wonderful about Rotary, but for me, one of the best parts of it for all these years has simply been the experience of being a Rotarian — the privilege of being able to walk into any Rotary club meeting, in any corner of the world, put on a nametag, and right away, be right at home.

And I am glad to know, that is something that will never change.
You know, a few years ago I read a news story about a construction worker who'd just retired. The last job of his career was bossing a crew that rebuilt a bridge — just an ordinary bridge, over a river that ran through a city. He helped take down the old bridge safely, and together with the rest of his team — a few dozen people, all told — he helped put the new bridge up.

The day the new bridge was opened, a news crew came out to film traffic and do a few interviews. And there was the construction worker, on his first day of retirement, sitting there on a bench by the side of the river, watching the cars and trucks go by, and looking pretty content. Somehow he wound up getting interviewed, and what he said was this: “There are lots of different jobs out there, and every one of them is important. This job was mine. I didn't build that bridge by myself, and I couldn't have built it by myself. But along with the guys on my crew, I took down an old bridge that wasn't safe and put up a bridge that was safe and strong and will last 100 years. When I look at that bridge, I don't think, „I did that. But I think, „I was a part of that. I helped.”
Since the day Paul Harris founded Rotary, 106 years ago, so many of us have been part of building its history. So many of us have helped, in so many ways. Of all the achievements we're so proud of, there's not a single one that belongs to one person alone. Everything we do in Rotary, we do together — because that's what Rotary is.

In the last 11 years that I've been Rotary's general secretary, I've had the honor and the satisfaction of being a part of so many of Rotary's accomplishments: Future Vision, our strategic plan, and our transformation from a valuable — but sometimes undervalued — community service organization into a key player in the world of international health and development. PolioPlus has put us in this new position. It's helped us to form dynamic partnerships with prominent international organizations such as the [Bill & Melinda] Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, CDC [the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], UNICEF, and USAID, to name just a few. We are trusted by governments and local authorities, and our international presence is unparalleled. No government, no NGO [nongovernmental organization], no individual has Rotary's reach — or Rotary's incredible potential.

During the past decade, Rotary International has developed, implemented, and revised a forward-looking strategic plan, and The Rotary Foundation has developed its Future Vision Plan and launched the pilot. We've also launched a worldwide campaign raising hundreds of millions of dollars to eradicate polio. We've brought polio “this close” to eradication.