George,

   I do not have the knowledge, experience or interest to come up with a 
"better" plan. I do believe that the SETI folk are interested but like me 
they lack in knowledge and experience. The OP asked for someone to stimulate 
the group and I think a discussion of the weaknesses in the current search 
is stimulating.
   SETI lacks funding because the funding process (my experience is in NIH 
but I think NSF is about the same) involves rating a bunch of projects and 
then handing out the available money to the ones with the highest ranks. 
Let's be clear on that, SETI, when rated by fairly competent scientists, is 
rated lower than other projects. SETI is fundamentally weak and isn't likely 
to get funded.
   SETI is creating a catalog of odd radio signals. I imagine that 
eventually a thesis or two will come of this. So this is not a worthless 
project but I don't believe that it will ever achieve the "advertised" 
outcome. If you like being a part of SETI feel free to continue, it will 
produce something. And it's a pretty harmless hobby.
   I'm not being deft in avoiding your request for a better SETI plan, I 
don't have one. I know nothing about silicon life and so I would not search 
for it. If it showed up and I recognized it I might develop a plan to study 
it. Some science gets done by noticing weird results while doing your 
experiments and then following up. And to give SETI it's due, a lot of 
science got done while looking for "vital forces".

Dave M.