[tjf]

I can't offer a solution, that's really up to you. However, I can reflect on the difference in culture as a student versus a mentor.

As a student, you look to the mentors for help, to fill in roles that other students refuse to, and to help prop the team up. However, as a mentor, you find yourself acting as a guide rather than the hand on the bot itself. The job of a mentor isn't to fix the bot yourself, or to seek the fundraising, it's to help your students arrive at the conclusion that they can do that themselves.

On 1257, the majority of decisions were made by students when it was reasonable to do so (eg. students didn't book plane tickets to CMP). However, when the student leadership made a decision, the mentors would likely voice their concerns, but ultimately support their decision.

The first step (in my eyes) you can take to un-involving your mentors from the team's leadership is making sure they know that they're overly involved. Teachers love to teach, and what might be viewed as interference could simply be each one of them doing their best to teach something they may not have a perspective of.

For example, if the mentors want to help the students brainstorm design ideas, that's okay on 1257. The line is drawn for mentors making an ultimate decision that hurts the team (eg: if they were to tell students to focus on a high-goal autonomous shooter if we didn't have a working drivetrain.) Ultimately, I'm very thankful that 1257's mentors understand to take a sidestep and allow students to run their course and complete FIRST's mission. To inspire science and technology.

I wish you the best of luck.