Fastpath webchat always shows as being offline

I have the fastpath plugin installed in openfire 3.7.1

I installed the webchat successfully with tomcat

put the scripts on a test site and everything tested just fine

a few weeks later, I had to restart openfire (unrelated reason) and noticed that the webchat now shows as offline

tried loging in and out of spark. the fastpath tab in the openfire admin console shows open with active members

when I click on the webchat, it opens up the offline email and sends correctly

Any ideas?