Thanks Adam, this may provide what we are looking for.  I do have a follow up question though, when is this LoadSettings.aspx called?  If it is called each time the user logs in or enters the chat room I can see this doing what we need however if it is a true global setting as the name suggests I don't see that being a ...

Is is possible to enable/disable certain features within the chat room based on the users role?  For example, the sample portal only allows global disable of private chat which disables this feature for all users within the chat room.  Is is possible to alter this to allow all admins to initiate private chat regardless of the global ...