Pre-approval of permissions solution? I'm stuck.

[BLykMik]

I can't figure out a solution to this issue and was direct here from the vBulletin forums...

We're about to open up our forums to a specific client's user group (about 120+ people). The access will be to a "private" forum we currently have set up.

The only way I can give user's permission to the private forum (that I know of) is to adjust thier permission as soon as they sign up...

...but that would obviously cause a delay in their access... and could be discouraging to their participation in the forum. For many of these users, it will be their first time accessing a forum community.

I do have a list of all of the groups emails and was planning on telling them all to use that email to sign up. I planning on trying to stay on top of it and going through and give the access as fast as possible.... but obviously, most will have left (and not seen all there is to see in the private forum).

So, is there a solution to this issue? It is early, so I can try anything...

Is there any way to "pre-allow" permissions to users that register with a specified email address?

Or any other solution to giving immediate access? Unfortunately, it is a private client area, so I can't leave it open to the public.

working with: vBulletin Version 3.0.7