Is there any way to make one of the forums private so that the committee working on this has a place to discuss online without everyone else reading what we are saying?

Yes, when creating a new threaded forum you are given the opportunity to set a separate password just for that forum. This password has nothing to do with your system password or passwords pertaining to the regular site login system. The password is exclusively used for the specific forum you're creating only, and only those who know the password will be able to get in and read the forum posts.

Thank you.. That is what I thought but didn't want to password it if it wasn't