What's wrong, and right, with the new website?

We're looking for suggestions on how to improve our new website.  Your constructive criticism is invited.

Some people have expressed their dislike for the current logo and banner area.  That's fine.  I claim to be a website builder but I've never claimed to be a graphic designer and I'm sure there are others the could do a better job.  Here are some details to take into consideration:

• The image on the site is 705x141 pixels in PNG format with a transparent background.  That's about as deep as we'd like to go to avoid wasting space "above the fold."  The width is as wide as it can be while allowing adequate space for the login and member information blocks that appear on the front page's header.  We might be able to use a wider image, up to about 900 pixels, if it had a background that went from side to side but still allowed space for the blocks to be overlaid.
• Our choice of area colors is pretty flexible.  However, the pallette colors must work well together and the number of colors should be rather small.

So, make some notes about how the site looks and works while you're exploring it and submit them as comments in this discussion thread.