The only real benefit that it offers is to prevent plain text passing of passwords. The rest of the data being plain text is kind of irrelevant since it is being posted to a public forum, anyway.
This, I think I only noticed it because I was logging in from the airport and always am extra sure that when on public WiFi I use SSL for EVERYTHING. Basically you can get a cert for free (though some browsers may complain about it) I think GoDaddy they are like $60/year or something.
As Hocky said, the main concern is that when you login to the Forum your password is being transmitted as Plain text, so anyone who is on the same Network with you could fairly easily capture that network traffic and have you username and password. While we may not care about someone getting our HMBA.org password, I would bet some coin that many people use the same password for other things too.
I think the biggest thing is just checking how difficult it is to setup SSL with the current webhost.
Here is one site which I've used for Free Certs that is reputable.
https://www.startssl.com/?app=1In the end I'd say if it's not too hard to setup on the hosting provider side (typically it's a 5 minute setup if not less) I'd say it's a good thing to have.
