What exactly do you mean by icons that represent different members and groups?

Icons that will let members select one to represent themselves in their profiles and/or the group they started. I have the wavatar profile icons but I want to add some of my own.

Sunwest, you can try the vazco_avatar plugin. We plan to upgrade it to Elgg 1.7 in the next few days. It can be extended to groups as a custom development as well.

Thanks vazco, that's exactly what I was looking for!