In Washtenaw County, Michigan, advanced simply means that you've put in 100 volunteer hours total. We need 40 the first year, and (I believe) 15 in subsequent years. I took the classes in spring, and for some reason, I seem to have 86 hours amassed. My point being, it doesn't appear too hard to reach this "advanced" status and it doesn't require additional training. I don't think we have any kind of lifetime status.

Here in CT, we put in 60 hours the first year even before graduating. I haven't heard of an advanced "title", but there are advanced classes available for ongoing education on many topics.
Jo

To my knowledge, we don't have this in Alabama.

We have to put in 40 intern hours before we are considered MGs and get our badge.

When we put in 100 total hours, we get a certificate and a small star for our badge.

When we put in 500 total hours, we get a certificate and a larger star for our badge.

When we put in 1000 total hours, we get a gold MG badge.

We have 2 designations - a lifetime Master Garderner volunteer has completed 1000 hours but must continue to have 12 hr continuing education and 25 volunteer each year.
We also have 4 emertis MGs who are still active.

Penny

We have an Emeritus status, which must be something like a Lifetime MG. This is given to those individuals who, during their lifetimes, have given an exceptional amount of time to the Master Gardener program. It is given at the discretion of the Board and not based on any specific number of hours. Emeritus MG's do not have any volunteer hour requirement to remain certified.

Recently the state co-ordinator decided to have all the programs adopt a standard system for ranking. Our group already had a pretty good system but the change allows us to accumulate hours rather than starting over each year. I don't have the details at hand but in general the levels are: Intern with certification after completing the classes and turning in their volunteer hours. Master Gardener which is the basic level with 6 hours of continuing ed and (I think) 20 hours of volunteer. Advanced Master Gardener, then several levels of Advanced Master Gardener with badges denoting the level and the number of hours. If I am remembering correctly the colors from lowest to highest are green, copper, silver, gold and platinum. I probably have it wrong somewhere. I'm sure there will be changes as the system is emplemented but it is more fair than some other systems. For example I started research on a project last winter and put in about 300 hours and produced 350 pages of information, then started the actual project this summer. With the old system I would have started over at 0 this year. You have to have a basic mumber of volunteer hours and Continuing Ed. hours to keep your certification each year. I don't think we have a Lifetime status. What other systems are used? Sandy