The other question I have is, how come I cannot change color on an icon I'm using for the group. I move the slider bar to make it a different color but it's still black. Any suggestions on that one?
Yes, this is possible through limiting privilege of the various categories, as well as potentially a custom bit of javascript to redirect users to the login page.
Looking forward to when we can have a "Make Forum Private" option that sets all permissions on all forums automatically so that you don't have to go about changing each one.