Dear kfeisntein,
You have the following option: you can save in a VIEW all your FEMAP preferences, not only background but also all pre&postprocessing options you like found under the F6 key command ("View Options" command). When you are happy with all your view options (including background) simple do CTRL-Q and at the bottom you have SAVE VIEW. Well, FEMAP will save all your view options in the file "view.esp" and will assign a number (ie, 1,2,3) and the name of current view. To see the number of the view saved simply do "Ctrl-Q > Open View", the last view saved will be the end of the list, if this is the first time you use this command you will have saved 1 view.
In order to make FEMAP to load this view WITH ALL VIEW OPTIONS and preferences simply go to "File > Preferences > Views" and browse in "View number (0 default)" and select the saved view. Save & Exit and you are done, the next time you open FEMAP with and empty database you will see your preferred options & setup loaded.
Best regards,
Blas.