Well done Rob. I applaud your initiative.
As a source of ideas, it might be worth looking at the way CIX implements conferencing facilities (CIX is a UK ISP which started out in conferencing).One of the nice things about CIX is you don't have to stay online !!
Would a usenet group we worth considering (I have no idea what setting up such a thing entails so forgive me if this makes no sense!)