On 7/10/12 3:43 PM, Deror wrote:
The conference tours suffered from lack of organization from the beginning. The tours were poorly organized, badly publicized, not properly described etc.

I have signed up to the NARA conservation lab tour. The description of which included two meeting points - a block apart from each other (one on Pensilvania ave and one on constitution avenue) both of which were wrong - the group met elsewhere resulting in a delay trying to find the participants.

This is completely my fault. It was a copy and paste error from when I was writing the description. It's too bad no one noticed this early enough to point it out, and I apologize.

The tour description listed that a photo ID is required and an official one - government one. I thought a driving license (sufficient for driving in the US) with a photo ID suffices but no. After having passed security checks (checking bags and detectors as in airport) And having to wait a bit longer, I was informed that only a passport is acceptable, and denied entrance to the tour, thus waiting a full hour and a half (traveling and waiting) due to the fact that the tour organizer is clueless.

I am not blaming the security staff there- they have their regulations, and need to follow them. But how hard would it be for the organizers to do simple basic homework and ask what is required for a foreign tourist to enter.

This is perplexing to me. I have never encountered this policy, and the National Archives web site makes no mention of it("Show official identification that includes a photograph. Acceptable IDs include driver's license, passport, and school and employment identification."), or special requirements for non-US IDs. To be clear, this is not a problem of the Wikimania organizers being disorganized or not doing basic homework. In fact, the NARA tours were completely organized by NARA staff and posted to the Wikimania wiki by myself. I suspect this was security's error, or else they were applying unpublished rules to members of the public (which would be quite unfair and impossible to have foreseen). 

And I was not the only wikipedian disallowed from entering, Osama was also kept out.

I talked to Osama, and, while that is also unfortunate, I believe this was because of the lack of any photo ID with him on the time, so it couldn't really be avoided.

My recommendation to you all - if this tour is any indication - do not bother to go on any other tours.

I don't think that is a productive suggestion. Real effort (and expense!) have gone into ensuring that we are able to showcase some of D.C.'s local attractions for our guests. While I recognize that there was a problem with your entry, the National Archives is visited by many thousands of tourists and researchers, domestic and foreign, every year without incident. For NARA's tours, a diverse array of staff—from conservators and technicians to social media staff to a senior archivist—have come together to offer these different tours. I hope everyone who is interested gets  a chance to attend and is not scared off; there will be tours of the National Archives rotunda (housing the original American Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights) tomorrow, meeting at 1 p.m.

Dominic