The Cambridge Workshops on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems and
the Sun are the longest running independent astronomy meeting! The original Cool
Stars Workshop, organized by Andrea Dupree, was held at Cambridge, Massachusetts
(USA) and started on January 30, 1980. The creation of the "Cambridge Workshop"
series was, perhaps, inspired by the invigorating meeting on "Solar Phenomena in
Stars and Stellar Systems", held at Bonas, France in 1980 (August 25th -
September 5th). Since that time the Workshops have increased in attendance and
length, reaching a three-fold increase in attendance by the 10th Anniversary -
reflecting the scientific vitality of cool star research. The Workshops have
been held biennially since 1981 and the first non-USA meeting was held in
Florence Italy in 1995. Non-USA meetings are now a regular feature; every other
meeting is usually held elsewhere. Typical meetings include a mixture of invited
reviews, invited specialist talks and substantial poster-display sessions. It is
an international venue for researchers from all disciplines of Cool Star
research to gather together quite informally to discuss current and future
research.