When I send an "Official Notes" email to a family, the email the family receives looks incredibly automated. We are a school who is known for its personal touch, and we went with BB because we thought it would help us to KEEP that personal touch. However, using the Official Notes feature destroys that feeling of relationship that we are working to build. The subject line in the email looks automated, and the first several lines of the email say: "Student Name: ****", "Author Name:***", then a space, then, "Comment Date: ***", "Comment Type: ***" - it makes it very clear that the email is from a system rather than a person.