ok - before I edit all 15 pages - is there a better way?

[Acorn]

Exactly the same but a few steps less.
You've already stopped repeating one footer, so select the footer on a different page:
Delete group. Choose to delete from ALL pages.
Go back to the page with the ungrouped footer. Marquee select all footer items > repeat on all pages.

Exactly my approach. I have been doing this for Repeating Groups top and bottom of a 100-page site but i had to get everything just right so I also did Egg's way as a fall-back.

Instead of Grouping, I automatically use Soft-Group and to be really safe add the content into a separate Layer.
You do need a different strategy if rollovers are involved.

Acorn