Allowing anyone with administer nodes to change group manager is not very safe nor is requiring administer nodes permission to change managers very practical.

How can we make the group manager issue more robust? We need verification.
If startup groups are created by the admin, how can admin solicit volunteer managers?
If the manager is no longer interested, how can said manager solicit volunteer replacements?

As it stands now, users can swap/appoint/etc. managers willy-nilly if everyone has amdinister nodes, or else a site admin needs to field requests and make all changes.

Related: http://drupal.org/node/62383
This approach would allow only the group manger to have administer node permissions and be able to pass on the managership of a group. Once passed off, the ex-manager gets demoted. Does the new manager even want the job? Where's the verification?

Ideas?