I think that, at least in the beginning, portions of your mission statement should be on the home page. Or if you wanted to do something different, a short explanation of what your group is and what it stands for on the home page would make things clearer.
Also, I am going to take some time to tell you what happens to my eyes when I log onto the site...
As far as colors and layout, The first place my eye continuously goes to is the white space that is underneath the menu bar and that is above "From the Editor's Desk". The absolute last place my eye falls to, is the logo section at the top. I think it has to do in part with the color scheme- the yellow tones seem to draw my eye away from the other aspects of the site that are important. Also, the site is "right-side" heavy. Most of the graphics are on the right side and I think the problem may be with the "logo area". The series of pictures underneath "Dressed in his glory" are causing my eye to fall to the right side, thus causing me to miss what the name of your group is until after about 10 seconds have elapsed. I'd play with the colors and the graphic placement a little more. I would explore softer colors that go with brown that aren't as bright.
