The purpose of this talk is to review, via slides, travels to and participation in the annual meetings of the Botanical Society of America (BSA) since I was a graduate student and to reflect a little on their importance to me. My first BSA meeting (with AIBS) was at Texas A. & M. University in 1967, and I have missed only two (1974 and 1997) since. With the exception of 1988 and 1995, Jerry and I have driven to the meetings, typically adding 2-3 weeks to the trip to study plant geography along the way and to go on pre- and/or post-meeting fieldtrips. Contributed papers and symposium talks we have presented at the meetings have included the germination ecology of individual species, changes in dormancy states of buried seeds, conditions required to overcome physiological, morphological, morphophysiological or physical dormancies, and a survey of the world biogeography of seed dormancy types. These studies have lead to development of conceptual models on the origins and evolutionary relationships of (1) the various types of seed dormancy and (2) the different kinds of physiological dormancy, which are published in our book "Seeds: Ecology, biogeography, and evolution of dormancy and germination" (Academic Press, 1998).
  For the past 30 years, the Botanical Society of America, including the annual meeting, has played a significant role in the life of this unemployed, married, female scientist. By judging me as a scientist, rather than by the size of my "pay check," The Society has provided me with great moral support, for which I am very grateful.

Key words: Presidential keynote address