I saw the example above showing using a "most recent posts" type of query. I've refined that a bit to use the current login to display posts according to access rules rather than restricting things by forums in a "private" group.

SQL:

SELECT TOP 5
     Forum_Forums.ForumID as 'ForumID'
    ,Forum_Threads.ThreadID as 'ThreadID'
    ,Forum_Posts.Subject as 'Subject'
    ,Forum_Posts.UpdatedDate as 'UpdatedDate'
    ,Users.DisplayName as 'DisplayName'
FROM
    Forum_Posts
    INNER JOIN Forum_Threads ON Forum_Posts.ThreadID = Forum_Threads.ThreadID
    INNER JOIN Forum_Forums ON Forum_Threads.ForumID = Forum_Forums.ForumID
    INNER JOIN Forum_Groups ON Forum_Forums.GroupID = Forum_Groups.GroupID
    INNER JOIN dbo.Users ON Forum_Posts.UserID = dbo.Users.UserID
WHERE
    Forum_Groups.PortalID = @PortalID
    AND Forum_Forums.IsActive = '1'
    AND Forum_Posts.IsApproved = '1'
    AND (
        Forum_Forums.PublicView = 1
        OR Forum_Forums.ForumID in (
            SELECT ForumID
            FROM dbo.Forum_ForumPermission
            WHERE
                AllowAccess = 1
                AND (
                    RoleID IN ( Select RoleID from dbo.UserRoles WHERE UserID = CONVERT(VARCHAR, @UserID))
                    OR EXISTS ( SELECT TOP 1 1 FROM dbo.Users WHERE UserID = CONVERT(VARCHAR, @UserID) AND IsSuperUser=1)
                )
        )
    )
ORDER BY
    Forum_Posts.PostID DESC

And here's another... for upcoming events! This only shows approved events that aren't cancelled.

SELECT TOP 3
     [EventId]
    ,[EventDateBegin]
    ,[EventName]
FROM
    Events
WHERE
    Events.PortalID = @PortalID
    AND EventDateBegin >= getdate()
    AND Approved = 1
    AND Cancelled = 0
ORDER BY
    EventDateBegin