Chairman-elect Richard Sudek has sent each of the TCA board members a copy of Spencer Johnson's Who Moved My Cheese prior to our 2nd Annual Offsite Strategic Planning Session at Chapman University. Hopefully the message in the book will lessen the natural resistance to change that an offsite planning meeting is trying to counter. There are so many issues to address, especially since we're a 12-year old organization that's just lost its founder.

Why name this post after Cassandra, the beautiful daughter of Priam, King of Troy? Remember, Apollo gave her the gift of prophesy, accompanied by the curse that no one would listen. Such is the fate of a podcaster after interviewing 265 of the world's experts in angel investing. It's the same when we prognosticate on deals as when commenting on alternative approaches to angel investing in these turbulent economic times, like angel investors everywhere, my opinions are no more valid than any of my fellows'.

Richard has asked that each of us forward an issue worth reviewing with the group. Adopting Angesoft would have to be near the top of my short list, but I must recuse myself now that they're a sponsor of the show. Even so, we're planning to spend a small fortune on our own website in 2010. Is this good money after bad? It's hard for collegial angel investors to collectively admit that they're continuing to fund a startup that should be wound down; we're all such nice guys. It's equally hard for us to admit the money we've invested in our website, even though it has many custom built features that Angelsoft doesn't have, that it's time to throw in the towel. Like Reagan did to the Russians that led to the end of the Cold War and the break down of the Berlin Wall, we bankrupted them in the arms race. Maybe that Cheese book will get us over the hump. I've often thought: what if the TCA website were destroyed, our hosting company burned to the ground, how long would it take for us to find adequate alternatives to the precious features of our custom built website? I'll bet we could sign on to Angelsoft, abandon our legacy data like the Pasadena Angels did when they converted last year, find a calendaring tool to suit our needs and save a not-so-small fortune. But like I said, I really can't comment on adopting Angelsoft.