>Well that sounds reasonable. I was also just told that if you have the PUTM that you can add people to the dashboard, so for all practial purposes that will acomplish what I'd like to see. I've been a member for quite sometime & haven't ever paid for the PUTM - but ya know I think I'm gonna go ahead and sign up for it.

This consideration is certainly appreciated. :)

Yes, the Dashboard contains some flexibility such as MSN for knowing who's in, who's out. As for the ability to get messages offline, you would be able to get the Web Services flexibility to read them locally once PUTM.