The Federal Reserve Board consists of seven members appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. Of them, two are chosen by the President to be the Chair and Vice Chair. Members serve on the Board for terms of 14 years; terms for the Chair and Vice-Chair are four years. The long length of the appointments is important due to the nature of the Board's work. The Board of Governors [Board] for the Federal Reserve System are charged with "setting the nation's monetary policy to promote the objectives of maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates" ("Purposes and Functions," 2005, p.15). Members must have assured longevity in their post to ensure consistency and stability in their monetary policy decisions.

             The Federal Reserve has three methods through which it controls the supply of money: open market operations, the discount rate and reserve requirements. Open market operations consist of the purchase and sale of securities. Control of the purchase and sales could relate to either the price or the quantity of reserves. Decisions regarding open market operations are made by the Federal Open Market Committee. The discount rate and the reserve requirements are the responsibility of the Board. The bank of the Federal Reserve loans money to commercial lending institutions. The rate at which they provide these loans is called the discount rate. Reserve requirements are just that, the minimum amount of depository reserves a depository institution must maintain. ("Purposes and Functions," 2005). Thus the Board can tighten or loosen the supply of money available within the economy by affecting banks' abilities to get money and depository institutions' abilities to secure deposits. .

             The supply of money must be regulated because the success of our society is fundamentally linked to the flow of money. Simply put, the actions of the Board have a profound affect on every citizen's daily lives.