Thanks for your reply Prendyo. I was so lucky when I joined the fellowship I am in, because I am a bit of a chatterbox and found the "courage" to chat to the others, which perhaps was quite new to them, but I somehow kick-started the others who were far more advanced than me, into coming on to chat and have a bit of the "craic" as we say where I am from. Almost embarrassingly, the Archmage was taken with me and within a week of me joining, I was made Mage! Until then, there was just the Archmage, 4 Ambassadors and the rest fellows. I am the only Mage as that is how the Archmage wants it, and everybody is very happy with this and very supportive.
Oops, sorry for writing so much!!