I responded in the chat discussion thread with the info below but I thought I should add it here too :-)
I am contacting Ning to see if there is a way that I can deactivate the bottom chat bar and instead add the pop out chat feature to a tab link. If there's a way that I can reconfigure the script I promise I will do it :-)
So, please bear with me I'm trying to figure out a resolve for those with slower connections and older computers.