I've seen chat tried on another forestry board. It didin't work too well.
The biggest problem is that you need a monitor. Otherwise discussions get out of hand.
The other problem is that you need to have a set time. But, not everyone lives in the same time zone.
You also need something to chat about. It doesn't take too long to get past the questions and into the war stories. Personally, I never liked chat. It was always hard to type replies and you didn't know who was talking to who.