[Jon Stratis]

One thing we've done in the past - having design discussions, strategy discussions, and prototyping as a group is awesome. It lets the mentors provide feedback based on their (hopefully) vast experience, and helps introduce newer students 539 more concepts. But in the end, a decision has to be made. If the mentors are dominating the decision making process, try getting them to step back. Get the team together after school before the mentors show up, make a bunch of decisions on what you want to build, and present it as a comprehensive design to the mentors. Show them you put in a lot of thought and that the team is United behind the design. And then ask them for help in achieving that design.

In my opinion, avoiding something just because the team has never done it before is silly. If there are other good reasons to avoid a particular design, then those reasons should be clearly listed for everyone to understand.