Hidden or staff only posts for collaborative moderation

Call it trial and error. Worst case you have the staff go into their preferences and watch that private category so they get notified of new topics in it. Secondly, the topics appear in the Latest list, and lastly, you can find it associated with the post. So it gives you more ways of being aware of the discussion than simply the post (and flags – that may get deferred/removed by another staff member)