This is going to sound completely out of left field; but what are the permissions on the folder above the avatar folder you're trying to use?
To troubleshoot, can you make a new folder and test it? Something like:
/var/www/vhosts/vcca.org/httpdocs/forum/uploads/avatars
The test directory script requires admin access, and I'm afraid troubleshooting would require FTP and admin access, which really is out of the scope of the user to user support that the
UBBCentral forums offer.
