Our national association is moving to a single, modern WordPress portal that keeps members talking, meeting, and trading in one place. The core goal is community engagement, so every build decision should reinforce connection between members while giving suppliers and retailers the space to do business. Key functionality • Discussion forums – easy-to-navigate threads, searchable, with role-based moderation tools • Event calendar – recurring and one-off events, RSVP, and iCal/Google export • Member profiles – public and private fields, avatar upload, direct messaging • Supplier/Retailer zone – directory style listings plus full e-commerce (product pages, cart, checkout, Stripe/PayPal) Technical notes • WordPress (latest stable) with a well-supported community theme or a lightweight custom theme. • Plugins are fine when they are actively maintained; custom code only where a plugin cannot meet the requirement cleanly. • Site must be mobile responsive, fast (Core Web Vitals in the green), and easy for staff to update in the back-end. • GDPR-compliant user data handling, including export/delete requests. Acceptance criteria 1. All four community features work on staging and production. 2. Logged-in/non-logged-in user flows are tested and documented. 3. E-commerce flow completes successfully from product view to confirmation email. 4. Admin handbook (PDF or Google Doc) explains routine tasks and plugin/theme updates. Please factor time for two feedback rounds before launch so we can polish member experience.