I personally don't think a "New Members" forum is necessary, nor do I think a "Newbie Outreach Program" is necessary.

If people post and are at all intelligent/ humorous/ friendly, they get noticed, and make friends. I don't see how forcing people to befriend new members would help anything. Plus, as BoB pointed out, it would require a lot of organization - we get many new members each day, and to match a veteran member with each of them would be time-consuming, and rather pointless, I think. As was also said - it's nicer when people reach out to be nice, not because a staff member forces them to do so.