ITASA provides the spaces for networking, community building, leadership training, and identity-building which are critical to the future of the Taiwanese American generation.

They created a steering committee of positions including the quaintly termed "Computer Operator" and recruited interested students from schools all over the nation to help run the organization.

Many members of the steering committee have noted that they lacked the experience and motivation to run a geographically dispersed student organization.

They also developed ITASA's nascent web presence, centralized fundraising strategies, and brought greater structure to the national calendar of events and board responsibilities.

In the spring of 1999, students at the University of California at Berkeley undertook the first West Coast Conference, bringing ITASA to three major regions across the United States.

The campuses at each school needed support in getting linked to the nationwide network and founding new chapters of Taiwanese American student groups.