thanks so much, babloome.
i kind of was giving up on answer for this one. it's been posted for almost a week. i appreciate your reply. basically, my asp page has 3 tasks that are organized into 3 if statements. each one would call a drop-down load routine. i don't want to repeat this loading of the drop-down box 3 time. instead, i would like to call a sub to do it. your solution is the answer to my problem.
thanks again.