Dolittle: No offense taken.
But to clarify: I only send them 3 or 4 names - the ones that collected more votes. So, whoever gets to be choosen is still someone requested by severall other people.
I send them to be picked by the current interviewee because it was suggested that (s)he should pick the next one and the idea seemed to collect lots of support. I just changed it slightly preciselly to avoid the friends-picks-friend scenario and to still give other people a role in selecting who the next one should be...
Like you say, whatever the system, it will always have its pro's and con's, so I'm sticking to this one for now (can't keep changing system every month, unless there's a very solid reason)