MEMBERS of the Rotary Club took a virtual visit abroad last week to witness the installation of the new president of the Luyang's Rotary Club in Borneo.

Seven members of the Lyme Regis Rotary Club attended the ceremony via Zoom which saw the new President be appointed in north Borneo. Also on the video call were clubs in Taiwan, Singapore, Shanghai, China, Bali, Manila and Australia.

Peter Fortnam, public relations officer for the Rotary Club, visited Borneo last year whilst he was the president and has kept in contact with Borneo's Rotary Club ever since. He was thrilled to be invited to the virtual installation of the new president with 60 other club members from around the world.

He said: "It was very interesting as there are 1.2 million member in 200 counties and now we are all in contact. We went through the whole ceremony with the Borneo club which took about two hours and lots of people contributed from different countries so it was quite an event.

"The Borneo club have invited us to speak with them in a couple of weeks to hear more about the Lyme Regis club and our region which will be nice. Hopefully in the future we will be able to go to actual events in person.

"The great thing about all of us being at home is this virtual communication that has opened up. We have never used virtual communication before but it has put us in close contact with international groups and we get to see their faces which is so much better than on the telephone. I think groups from around the world will now communicate a lot more than before."

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