OK - after several hours of fiddling around I finally figured it out:
If your Notices are not showing up on your customized style, you need to add this to your Navbar template wherever you want them to show up
PHP Code:
<if condition="$show['notices']">
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<tr>
<td class="thead">$vbphrase[notices]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="alt1">$notices</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br />
</if>
<if condition="$show['forumdesc']">
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<tr>
<td class="alt1" width="100%"><strong>$foruminfo[title]</strong> <span class="smallfont">$foruminfo[description]</span></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br />
</if>