The Executive Board, based in Washington, meets at least three times a week. It has 24 members. Eight of these members represent individual countries. (France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA have seats because they are the biggest contributors. Saudi Arabia, China and Russia have seats because they are very important politically or economically.) These are permanent representatives. The remaining 16 members represent groupings of other countries and are elected by those countries every two years. There are only two representatives for the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. The Board rarely takes formal votes on decisions, preferring to act by consensus (agreement between all). However, if decisions have to be voted on, the countries contributing most money get the most votes.