On the weekend from 18 to 20 October 2013 the members of the Unternehmerverband Historische Baustoffe e.V. met at the company Historische Baustoffe Ingo Selent GmbH in Porta Westfalica and at the company Thomas Knapp Historische Baustoffe GmbH in Stadtoldendorf. In addition to the annual general meeting, the programme included visits to new company sites, lectures and a guided tour through the old town of Hameln.
On Friday afternoon, the entrepreneurs from all over Germany visited the new exhibition and storage areas of Selent in Eisbergen, a district of Porta Westfalica. On the grounds of a former school building, Ingo Selent presents historic gates, fences, stone fountains and stone figures in the middle of old trees. The high quality of the material offered and its harmonious staging were much admired by the colleagues.
Afterwards, the general meeting was held in the former classroom in front of the open fireplace. Under the leadership of the managing director H. Christoph Freudenberger, the meeting discharged the old and elected the new board. Mathias Jürgensen, who works in Quern near Flensburg, was the third member of the board for the host Ingo Selent, who is retiring from the board.
Florian Langenbeck from Freiburg and Thomas Knapp from Deensen near Stadtoldendorf, who also hosted the second part of the members' meeting on Saturday and Sunday, were re-elected as second and first board members. A subsequent lecture by Wilhelm Bulthaup from Hiddenhausen on the subject of entrepreneurial marketing concluded the meeting.
Saturday started with a small material auction and the morning guided tour through the old town of Hameln. Afterwards the general meeting was continued in the conference room of the Hotel TRYP in Stadtoldendorf by a lecture of Thomas Borghoff on the website of the association. The focus was on the use of the website, the current technological developments and the consequences that can result from both for the entrepreneurs.
In the early evening the dealers of historical building materials visited the newly opened branch of Thomas Knapp in the industrial estate Deenser Straße in Stadtoldendorf. The guests then spent a pleasant evening with food and entertainment amidst the exhibited furniture made of historic oak wood.
The Sunday morning was dedicated to historical oak wood. Thomas Knapp guided the visitors through the 12,000 square metre headquarters in Deensen and explained to his colleagues the individual work steps from cleaning to finishing. The company's employees demonstrated individual work steps such as nailing and sawing historical oak beams to measure.
