What are Colleagues used for in the forum?

[Jim McMillen]

There is a lot of useful info in this forum. But I do have a few questions I'm hoping someone can answer:

1: What is the colleagues section used for? Just trying to figure out the purpose of "inviting" a colleague.

2: Is there a way to see if you have a personal message from someone once you log into this site? For instance on some other forums I belong to, once you log in a box jumps out at you saying you have a pm. I've sent a few pm's to people on this site and I don't know if they know they are there or not.

Thank you.

Jim