June 2026
Analysis of Comment Cards from June 8, 2026 SIR Branch 8 Luncheon .
There were two cards turned in by three members. One member was “Satisfied”, one was “A bit annoyed”, and one gave no attitude.
Food had six comments. The meal was good, fish was great, salad was good, dessert was good, chicken was tasty but too small.
Practice setting up the presentation before lunch.
SinSIRly,
Jim Sowell
May 2026
Analysis of Comment Cards from May 11, 2026 SIR Branch 8 Luncheon .
There were two cards turned in by two members and one unidentified attendee. The two members were “A bit annoyed”, and the unidentified attendee gave no attitude.
Food had three comments. Two said the dessert was unappetizing and one said there was no green lettuce, only white lettuce.
SinSIRly,
Jim Sowell
April 2026
Analysis of Comment Cards from April 13, 2026 SIR Branch 8 Luncheon .
There were 6 six cards turned in by seven members and one unidentified attendee. One member was ‘Impressed”, one member was “A bit annoyed” , and five members gave no attitude. The unidentified attendee was “Pleasantly Surprised”.
Food had ten comments. Food was great, good food taste. Great mac-and-cheese. Chicken good or a little dry. Not a cole slaw fan. Fruit should be in a bowl to make more “spoonable”. Dessert not so good. When we spend $38 for lunch we should get better than chicken thighs and mac-and-cheese. At least upgrade to chicken breasts
Four members said they much preferred or liked the buffet system and that two lines were much faster and better, so keep it up.
Why is the sound system so poor. Some speakers can be heard but some could not be heard well.
Would like images on the screen like before.
Start the meeting sooner.
SinSIRly,
Jim Sowell
March 2026
Analysis of Comment Cards from March 9, 2026 SIR Branch 8 Luncheon .
There were 5 cards turned in by 5 members. None of the members gave an attitude.
The speakers received 7 comments. New Wrinkle was a marketing spiel, a sales presentation or a recruitment pitch. No costs were discussed. Speakers were OK, not good, not bad, not cool. The chiropractic discussion was completely out of order, particularly in a room with many MDs. Chiropractic is mostly nonsense. The chiropractic sales pitch was not good.
Food had four comments; Excellent, Great lunch, the tender and tasty corned beef and cabbage was very good. Dessert was also very good.
SinSIRly,
Jim Sowell
February 2026
Analysis of Comment Cards from February 9, 2026 SIR Branch 8 Luncheon.
There were 25 cards turned in by 22 members and four unidentified attendees. One member was “Impressed”, four members were “Satisfied”, three were “A bit annoyed”and one was “A bit disappointed”. Fourteen members and four unidentified attendees gave no attitude.
Food received 25 comments. One person said “We got more food than we ever have”. The food was excellent, very good or good. Meat loaf, salad and mashed potatoes were great. The meat loaf was good but it was raw or under-cooked in some portions. Meat loaf can be bad if too much onions are added. The vegetarian dish (canneloni) was good or above average, salad was not as good as usual, or food was not good. The broccolini was too tough to cut with a knife. The gravy had zero taste. There was no fish choice. The buffet food was no better than plated lunch. The coffee was nicely hot. Everyone loved the dessert.
Staff was good.
A member asked if the buffet decision was a financial issue. The acceptance of the buffet concept was broadly divided. There were 5 unequivocal positives, from best idea in years!, do it again, buffet well organized, good and different, to good variety, and continue.
There were 12 mostly supportive comments with reservations about slow service. Six thought it would be improved with two serving lines, a member suggested one server per dish. One liked that members weren’t eating at 11 AM. Having salads already on the table would get people started eating earlier and give more plate room for main dishes. One appreciated getting seconds. A communications problem within Boundary Oaks staff prevented a member from getting both items in the buffet.
Four members rejected the buffet concept saying This Sucks, No buffet or they preferred seated rather than buffet service. There was no water on the tables and one member ate dessert first because he was hungry .
The program took too long; cut back on the stories.
The speaker received six comments. Hit a home run with the speaker. Speaker was great, very good, very interesting, interesting, well informed or good. Very interesting subject. It was a good talk for kids. Better (for SIR) if more sophisticated . The slide show was good but set-up should have been done before the meeting.
It is ridiculous, too bad, and sad that our A/V doesn’t work properly in 2026. Table 12 at the far end of the room could not see a screen.
Birthday SIRs should stand up when we sing “Happy Birthday”.
The most interesting comment was “What was that bad smell in the hallway”?
SinSIRly,
Jim Sowell
January 2026
Below is the report on the Comment Cards from the January 12, 2026 Luncheon.
There were 14 cards turned in by 13 members, one guest and one unidentified attendee. Four members and one guest were “A bit annoyed”. Nine members and one unidentified attendees gave no attitude.
The speaker received 20 comments. The speaker was very knowledgeable, with an impressive resume and a nice summary of his retirement activities. He was overly detailed and spent too much time on his resume. He didn’t need to quote the number of the legal codes involved. Reading is good sometimes, but he read in a monotone. A member did not hear any task that would better our community. The reading was uninteresting, dreadfully boring and put people to sleep. It was a tragedy to have guests and applicants that were interested in SIR have to listen to the worst speaker in SIR history.
This presentation was not a good incentive to have guests return. We need to find some interesting speakers with pertinent and informative topics. Speakers must be coached to limit the length of their talk.
Food received nine comments. Good lunch. The salad was great. The fish was good but overcooked at a previous lunch. The chicken was good but overcooked for one member and too small for another. The vegetarian dish was very good. The tiramisu dessert was very good.
Sound system worked great. Audio system was very unclear or terrible.
Great service.
SinSIRly,
Jim Sowell
updated 07/12/2026 by MLF
