The TCCNC is a fiscally sponsored project of the Tibetan Association of Northern California (TANC) - a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization which organizes a variety of educational and cultural activities for Tibetans in the Bay Area. In November 2005, the TANC Board of Directors convened a meeting of Tibetan community leaders and several long time supporters of Tibet in the Bay Area to formulate a plan for creating a community center.

The result was the formation of the TCCNC Executive Committee - a six person team (currently 9 members) who committed to putting consistent time and effort into the project on a weekly basis with frequent meetings, especially during the initial stages of the project. The idea was to create a project group that was task-oriented and that could map out concrete steps and attract the talent necessary to execute the project, not to create a group that would make all the key decisions.

The vision for, and key decisions around, the Center will come from the community itself. Ascertaining the needs of the community is one of the principal tasks of the TCCNC in year one of the project.

On the level of governance, the Executive Committee has divided the community center project into 10 core areas: Communications, Fundraising, Financial Planning, Real Estate, Spatial Design, Community Organizing, Outreach & Partnerships, Legal Issues, Programming and Administration. Another high priority task for year 1 is for Executive Committee members to attract people with expertise in each of these areas who can make a commitment to working on the Center.

The Executive Committee coordinates all major decision making and major expenditures with the TANC board - principally via bi-monthly meetings.