[TSemmes]

Is there a way to create separate forums? One would be people that are preselected to participate in a particular discussion (members). The other would be public and open to anyone who wants to be part of a discussion (nonmembers or members). For the open discussion, is it essential that everyone needs to register?

[Jared Atchison]

There is no way to do this with bbPress, however you can certainly do this with BuddyPress (which will use bbPress).

In BuddyPress you can setup groups, which can each have their own forum, and users in that group can post in its respective forum.