Just to recap on the quota/permission settings.
There are three.
1.Total # of private topics allowed
The maximum number of private topics this group can have. If this is set to 0, this group cannot start new private topics.
2.Max # of private topic participants
This setting dictates the maximum number of users that can be invited to a private topic.
3.Total # of posts allowed in a private topic
When a private topic has more than this many posts, users in this group will not be allowed to add any more posts.