Thanks for comments so far ....
It would seem that in a week or two we will be able to "migrate" the comm, complete, to Multiply - they're working on the how-to's at the moment. To do this appears to be the only way forward in terms of keeping what we have - come February 2009 all the MSN groups will be deleted.
Apparently MSN are about to launch Windows Live Groups, but it will not be possible to migrate groups to that .... we would have to create our group again from scratch - and I have to say, I wonder how long Live Groups will be allowed to exist before they are sold/broken up/destroyed.
I have created a personal page on Multiply already - http://phoebedslr.multiply.com/ if you care to take a look; it's easy to create your own page! I find Multiply to look very like Myspace, Webjam, Livespace et al. However, it's refreshingly unlike Facebook - no need to spam 15 friends to add another app
Anyway will keep you informed of progress (if that's the right word!)
Sheepie!