Story Telling
Story tellers in the SCA help bring events to life. As both an important part of Mediaeval and SCA culture this is a useful topic to hold a meeting on.
Materials Required
Not many, just a few useful books (preferably well documented).
Meeting Outline
My favourite way of opening up this meeting is to ask if anybody has a joke (you may wish to specify that you don't want just a Question/Answer riddle). With any luck someone will come up with a reasonably long one that somebody has told them (though more likely these days they'll have got it off the net). This allows you to get on to the subject of the "Oral Tradition". Jokes are one of the few remnants of "Oral Tradition" left in modern society. You may then wish to move on to a few examples of how the "Oral Tradition" manifested itself in Celtic culture (the bards) Anglo-Saxon culture (Beowulf etc.) or any other area in which you are knowlegeable. Feel free to give examples of stories from these cultures, and make sure to point out their role in that society (e.g. pass down knowlege useful to survival, historical education, to instill a battle ethos).
Next, try a couple of later written sources. The Decameron and Cantebury Tales are very good examples as they are both examples of books that have the characters in it telling stories to each other. There are many stories in The Decameron that can be read out as part of a meeting topic (though the dirty ones tend to be more popular), but the stories in the Cantebury are too long. You may wish to read out the section from the Cantebury Tales where Chaucer himself is imposed on to tell a tale, and wishing to get out of it starts telling the most trite story possible. The host eventually stops him ensuring that Chaucer no longer has to tell any more stories. It is particularly satisfying to end off with "Put bluntly Sir, and in a word/ Your petty rhyming isn't worth a turd", and then to point out that Chaucer is the father of English Literature.
Possible Problems
Don't use the meeting just to tell stories to the rest of the room. People tend to get agitated once a story goes beyond ten minutes at an event, so don't push it.
Other Options
You may wish to turn this into a "how to" meeting. Instructions on voice projection, manner of delivery and how to memorise a story would not be inappropriate.
You may want to include riddles as a form of oral tradition. The Exeter Book of Riddles is a fine place to start for this.
Resources and References
The following is a list of books that are good period sources for stories:
For a more extensive and in depth list, look at Period Sources For Story Telling from Cariadoc's Miscellany. I am also putting together a page myself on Short Stories Before 1600.
Other useful books include "Secret Languages of Ireland" by R.A. McAlister, which talks about the bards of Ireland.
Webbed by Conrad Leviston. Please mail any suggestions/corrections/comments