That was my (and others') original idea (QuickBase is what's driving the lounge project -- as you know, since you run it!). But Intuit only offers 10K of database and 500K of attachments in the free version. Not sure how much room is actually required.
If QuickBase can be used for this without running up a bill, then as I suggested before, let's not put it all through Empress but input it ourselves!
andrew