This is a good discussion and I would like to see it continue -- a few things that have struck me so far are the following:
We have multiple group activities that we currently do (or plan to do) and the same solution may not work for all of them, depending on what the activity is, and who is participating in it. For example, for reasons already expressed in this thread, I think it makes sense to continue using typed chat for band activities. However, people who do instances and raids may find they would prefer to use a voice solution, or a typed chat solution, or both, depending on which players are involved, and what instance is being done.
As for voice chat, I think we should continue to discuss options since I can see a place for it in at least some of our activities. However if we decide on ventrilo or mumble or teamspeak there is the issue of how to pay for it since I think these are all nonfree -- or at least they seem to scale up in costs to support more and more people being on at once. So the issue might come down to ... x and y are great, but no one wants to pay for it ... on the other hand google chat and Skype are not so good but they are acceptable and they are free. Still if something costs like $12 a month, and 12 people are willing to pay to support it, that's only $12 per year per person
I don't know how other kinships make these decisions -- I am thinking we might eventually arrive at something that enough people are willing to support with actual money, then one person might take the initiative and set it up and then take contributions. If that doesn't happen, I am certainly willing to help test some free options and publicize how to use them. Well, after I catch up on my homework that is....