Thanks for coming and for your input, everyone. I learned something today!
Here’s my furious notes. If you have things to add or have useful information to share, please do so in the comments.
Things to use a membership site for:
Non-profits, political campaigns, sharing professional expertise, building expert status within a community
Plugins mentioned:
- Page Restrict
- Member Access
- WishList
- Members Only
- User Access Manager
- Limit Login Attempts
Other Resources:
- Roles & Capabilities
- BBPress
- BuddyPress
- WordPress MU
- IntenseDebate
- pro.gigaom.com
Other ideas shared:
- Subdomains: Use a sub-domain for membership site, i.e.: members.domain.com
- Matt Mullenweg mentioned his build of Automatic Support Network (using Paypal)
- Concerns & ideas shared around to pay or not to pay for a membership solution/application that works with WordPress
Brandie Kajino is an author, speaker and entreprenuer. She has been a small business owner since 2005, began blogging in 2006, and has hosted three podcasts. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and son, enjoying coffee and good conversation whenever possible. 
Here is an option to start getting on a membership site that i have played with integration into WP.
http://www.kickapps.com/
one of the advantages that I have found with this is that I am not relying on plugins (at the time the buddy press was still in development) is that they manage all the technical aspects such as forums, pic hosting etc, and you an embed those sections into different parts of your WP theme.
they also offer a plugin that allows you keep the WP registration process and allows you to own your user data etc.
unfortunately I wasnt able to get the WP/KickApps registration integration to work due to some client hosting issues.
all in all it wasnt a bad choice to use as the backend for the social/membership management etc.
Thanks Brandie! I wasn’t able to attend, so your notes here were timely–especially for the membership sites. I’m just starting to research the options.
Of the plugins you mentioned or heard about—was there any one of them that seemed more popular or recommended??
Have a Great Day,
Rusty