Thanks for your responses.
The issue is that we need a single menu in the sidebar that gives the visitor access to all of the component parts of a user's profile, rather than splitting them into different headings such as "News Feed," "Applications," (a concept that doesn't have meaning to our users), etc.
This need is perfectly met for "groups" by your "Groups Menu Module": a single list of all of the things the user can find within the group: discussions, events, feeds, files, members, annnouncements, polls, tasks.
For individual members, what I need is a similar menu (in a module or otherwise): About Me, My K2 items, My EasyBlog items, My Photos, My Videos, My Friends, My Followers, My Events, My Polls, etc.
That way all parts of the members profile (or at a minimum all "default" parts of the profile) are treated the same. The problem with the current layout is that when we as administrators set an "application" as "default" for all users (in keeping with the purposes and needs of our individual communities), the term "Application" has no meaning to the user - so separating those parts out is meaningless.
That said, I think even where the user has added optional "applications" on their own, it still makes the navigation more complicated and the sidebar more cluttered than either needs to be.
Is there a menu that I could render for the user that has all of their profile elements within it?
Thanks!
Cheryl