Forums

Each area of your organization can have its own relevant forum, so from the Fair Trade group to those commenting on the latest policy article, different groups have their own relevant space.
Corresponding with this each forum can have its own security access level, so public visitors to the site may join in with Fair Trade forum, whereas only those on the policy advisory board have access to the policy forum. User's experience a site tailored to their interests and level of involvement.
Forums are an excellent way to have more in-depth issue based discussions, the message "thread" is saved so participants can track the discussion, joining in at their convenience.
Members can start new topics and discussions at any time, helping create ownership of the web site.
When new articles are published on the site, a response forum is automatically created helping stimulate discussion.
Peer to peer review (using a flagging system) minimizes the workload of forum moderators.
Permissions on each forum control who is able to read, write and moderate messages