Some BIG questions needing an answer soon.

Hi there, I have very little time to find out if WordPress can do what I would like it to do and hope that someone can quickly give me the answers to my questions below.

Here’s what I would like to do:

1.I want to set up two distinct groups, each with 10 people. I want to have each group work on creating written material online over a 6 – 7 month period and I would like to be able to look in on the progress of each person as they work – can this be done using WordPress?

2.Can the discussion forum be recorded – is it easy to save the content of the discussion forum?

3.I believe you need a plug-in to get a chat area working – again can this be easily recorded?

4.Is there a way for people to bring in resources for the group to look at and share?

Basically I’m working on a research project where the discussion forum and chat content needs to be captured and saved.
Ideally I would like to have a way for each person in the two groups to have privacy while they work on written material online and have the project leader be able to look in on this written material as it’s being produced. And finally is there a way for people to bring in shared material (URLs, word documents, and images).

As mentioned the project needs to be set up and run for about 6 – 7 months.

Any help would be enormously appreciated – I need to make a choice of platforms very soon.

Cheers