Seattle's Alliance of Angels has had a single executive leading the group for its 11 year history, Dan Rosen. Yes, succession problems come to mind and it reminds me of Duwayne Peterson of the Pasadena Angels who eventually found a successor after many years at the helm, but having strong leadership in an angel group has got to correlate with good deals, good relationships with entrepreneurs and even better returns.

Contrast manager-led groups, like the AoA, Band of Angels, Common Angels, Hub Angels and the NY Angels, versus all-volunteer groups like the Tech Coast Angels: differences come to mind. The manager-led groups are funding more startups this year. As the economic turmoil of the past year has roiled early-stage funding, manager-led groups can react more quickly, implementing changes as necessary. At the NW Regional Angel Summit last February I learned that AoA had already changed their pre-money valuation criteria, only letting in entrepreneurs that complied with the new guidelines; and why wouldn't an entrepreneur listen when 2 out of 3 presenting companies got funded the prior year? Think of the consistency in due diligence, term sheets, co-investing with nearby angel groups and dealing with follow-on rounds; having a strong executive with long term experience would be a great asset for an angel group.

All-volunteer groups spread the responsibilities around, probably a good strategy for long term survival. The succession plan here in LA is now a single year as Chairman. That rotates a lot of talented members through the leadership, creating more angel ambassadors in the local community, but at what cost? A one-year term means there's very little time to learn on the job; by the time you go through a single cycle, say arranging the annual business plan competition at the local university, coordinating a Fast Pitch, setting a plan for the website, and the like, your time is up and out you go onto the blogosphere, at best. Self-imposed term limits come to mind and remember the argument against? That power would shift from elected officials in Congress to the Executive or, worse, the military. I don't know where the angel power has gone, but longer terms for leaders of all-volunteer angel groups would be a step in the right direction.