I have read the article as well as the new linked to. I still cannot get the styles to pull in no matter what I do.

I simply want to restrict access to a group of web pages in a directory to a select group of forum members. That's all.

The task of trying to integrate vBulletins permissions system based upon the examples you've cited are beyond my comprehension and more advanced than I really need.

Thanks anyways. I guess I'm just going to move on and leave this project on the backburner.

Well, the style will get pulled in with the inclusion of the $headinclude template. And that gets pulled in from the inclusion of the $header template (I think..). Since you aren't using the template system to pull in those template, then they aren't getting included. If you use the template system, they will get included.