"UserEcho (where we are presently) is a 3rd party tool implemented to gather feedback with respect to Profiles and only Profiles. However many folks are using it to vent generally about deficiencies in the new environment."
^
That is a really, really odd choice...why would you even want separate services for feedback on different parts on your site? I mean, sure, on the backend you'll want to route feedback to whomever that particular kind of feedback is relevant. But why should that concern the visitor of your site? To me this sounds like an excellent way to lose quality feedback and frustrate your visitors.

Mike, thanks for chiming in. The problem is mainly that it is not clear what you ahve to do to upload the avatar the first time. IN account settings you have to click on your name, which is simply non-obvious. Once you first uploaded an avatar, then you will get a clear "upload" link underneath your avatar.