var target = "";

   function checkEmail(email){
     var email = "email="+email;
     target = 'badEmail';
     passVars('checkemail.php',email);
   }

   function get_list(type){
     var bus_list = "type="+type;
     target = 'members';
     passVars('makeList.php',bus_list);
   }

   var http_request = false;

   function passVars(url,input) {
      http_request = false;
      if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari,...
         http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
         if (http_request.overrideMimeType) {
         	// set type accordingly to anticipated content type
            //http_request.overrideMimeType('text/xml');
            http_request.overrideMimeType('text/html');
         }
      } else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // IE
         try {
            http_request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
         } catch (e) {
            try {
               http_request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
            } catch (e) {}
         }
      }
      if (!http_request) {
         alert('Cannot create XMLHTTP instance');
         return false;
      }

      http_request.onreadystatechange = alertContents;
      http_request.open('POST', url, true);
      http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
      http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-length", input.length);
      http_request.setRequestHeader("Connection", "close");
      http_request.send(input);

   }

   function alertContents() {
      if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
         if (http_request.status == 200) {
            //alert(http_request.responseText);
            result = http_request.responseText;
                document.getElementById(target).innerHTML = "";
                document.getElementById(target).innerHTML = result;
         } else {
            alert('There was a problem with the request.(Code: ' + http_request.status + ')');
         }
      }
   }